WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – It took everyone, but at Mitch Gornto Tennis Center, No. 4 Southeastern completed what seemed impossible. Erasing a 3-0 deficit, and shocking No. 1 Keiser, 4-3. In doing so, Head Coach Andrew Dickens earned his 100th career victory as head coach of the Fire Women's Tennis program.
The doubles followed similarly to the past several years. Keiser in control. The No. 2-ranked duo of Violet Apisah and Patricia Apisah defeated Martina Picardi and Alessia Ciampi, 6-2, on flight one. While Alexandra Melnikova and Lena Couto earned a 6-2 win over Aurora Compagnucci and Leonie Schondelmaier on flight three just one minute later.
On flight two, Isabella Bolivar Garces and Irene Parigi held a 4-3 lead in their doubles match.
Trailing 1-0, Southeastern responded with an incredible turnaround in singles.
Keiser set its sights on the finish line, jumping to match point in 70 minutes as on line one as top-ranked Violet Apisah blanked No. 62 Isabella Bolivar Garces, 6-0, 6-0. Shortly after, with No. 35 Alexandra Melnikova topped No. 29 Martina Picardi, 6-1, 6-1, on line two.
SEU's backs were against the wall. But the match doesn't end until the final point is played.
Ciampi started the rally on line three, bouncing back in resounding fashion after dropping the first set to defeat No. 55 Patricia Apisah, 1-6, 6-2, 6-1. Schondelmaier held on on line four with a clutch 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) win over Ella Sahnis to cut the deficit to 3-2.
The Seahawks had not lost a Sun Conference Match since 2017, and had never to the Fire. The idea of an upset became just a bit clearer as No. 53 Irene Parigi upset No. 33 Lena Couto, grinding out a three-set victory, 5-7, 6-0, 6-3 on line five. Evening the match score at 3-3.
All eyes turned to line six, where the freshman, Compagnucci was striving with the weight of the match on her shoulders. Having dropped the opening set to Aline Aveiro 6-1, she needed two sets to complete the upset.
She flipped the tables on Aveiro, erasing match point in set two, turning a 5-4 deficit into a 7-5 second set victory. And back to work she went, taking the advantage 5-3, Aveiro did take the ninth game of the third set. But Compagnucci had no plans of going to extras, sealing Coach Dickens' milestone victory, and arguably the greatest upset in program history with a 6-4 third set win.
All sorts of milestones topped, Southeastern turns their attention to Ave Maria who comes to visit Lakeland on March 27 at 1 p.m.
