LAKELAND, Fla. -- It was right from the get-go Monday morning, doubles set the tone, and singles clinched quickly as the Fire delivered a statement, 5-2 victory, over No. 7 Xavier (La.).
Running with the same doubles teams from the Saturday prior, SEU blazed out to a early 1-0 lead. Gonzalo Fernandez and Javier Gallego completed a quick 6-3 victory over Emmanuel Jebutu and Edilson Rosa. And Aristeidis Lafazanos and Piero Fernandez matched that score, clinching the doubles point, knocking off Gabriel Velez and Martin Rivera.
The lone unfinished doubles featured Pedro De La Riva and Gustavo Rubio, down a break to the NAIA No. 4 Nereo Suarez and Christian Sanchez 5-4 on flight one.
Similarly to doubles, the match was clinched in decisive fashion.
De La Riva continued his winning ways with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Jebutu on line three. Lafazanos followed suit with a 6-1, 6-3 victory against Rosa on line five.
And No. 16 Gonzalo Fernandez drilled in the match decider with another convincing result, corralling a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Velez on line four, clinching the win for Southeastern.
After the match was decided was when Xavier picked up their points, grabbing wins the top two lines. No. 12 Sanchez finished off No. 10 Gallego, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3. And despite a heroic effort, No. 21 Piero Fernandez fell in three sets to No. 6 Suarez, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4, after trailing the third set 4-0.
Nikolas Kumria collected SEU's final point just before court one finished, extending his perfect individual record to 8-0 with a 6-3, 7-5 win on court six.
Southeastern will now enjoy a brief respite, before heading back to conference play, battling up and coming College of Coastal Georgia on April 10th at 1 p.m.
