 "Photo: Ron Besser")
A day after suffering its first loss of the season, the No. 7 University of West Florida men’s tennis team (2-1, 1-0 GSC) bounced back and defeated No. 8 Columbus State (4-2) with a 7-2 score.
The Argonauts played their first home match of the year, and pulled out the win by capturing two wins in doubles and five wins in singles.
The Argonauts started the doubles action with a loss in the No. 1 spot, as the No. 3 pair formed by sophomore Kevin Ducros and freshman Leandro Ferreira fell 8-5 to No. 8 Christophe Noblet and Frank Suarez from Columbus State. The Argos responded by pulling out wins on the next two doubles matches.
Sophomore Andrey Pozhidaev and freshman Lukas Larsson beat Gordan Divljak and Nemanja Djuric with an 8-4 score in the No. 2 doubles. Junior Patrick Bateman teamed with Gui Bertei and earned a key match for West Florida.
The third Argonaut pair defeated Diego Motivar and Martin Shishkov 9-8 to give the Argonauts the 2-1 lead entering the singles play. In singles the Argos were able to win five out of six matches.
Bateman played No. 4 and beat Divljak 6-3, 6-1. No. 43 Pozhidaev defeated Olivier Simonet 6-1, 7-5 in the No. 3 singles spot. Ferreira also clinched the match’s fifth point for the Argonauts as he defeated Shishkov 7-5, 7-6 in the No. 2 singles.
No. 12 Ducros rallied from a set down to defeat No. 18 Suarez 6-7, 7-5, 6-3 in the highest singles match. Mike Lue also rallied from a set down to beat Motivar 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the No. 6 singles. Sean Gunnels dropped the only match in singles for the Argonauts, as Noblet from Columbus captured a 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 win, giving the final score of 7-2 for UWF.
WOMEN:
Also a day after suffering its first loss of the season, the No. 7 women’s tennis team (1-2, 1-0 GSC) dropped a 5-4 match to No. 8 Columbus State (8-1). It was the first home match of the season for the Argonauts, and it was decided on the details as the matches were all very even. The Cougars got the lead in doubles, and both teams split three singles matches a piece.
The Argonauts started the doubles action with a win in the No. 1 spot, as junior Taylor Brewster and sophomore Caitlyn Baines defeated Hanane Toumi and Loriane Favoretto 9-7.
The Cougars then bounced back with a couple of wins in a tiebreak. In the No. 2 spot senior Paulina Ojeda teamed with freshman Luiza Sonnervig and fell 9-8 to Tracy Castillo and Caterina Kiefer.
In the No. 3 spot junior Barbara Oliveira and freshman Mariana Sonnervig had a couple of match points to give the Argos the lead. However, they were not able to pull out the win, falling to Gabriela Valisescu and Sofia Persson 9-8. The Cougars entered the singles action 2-1.
The singles action was split, as both teams won three matches each. Playing No. 4 singles, Baines defeated Persson 6-3, 6-3 to tie the match at 2-2. The Cougars then won the next three matches to secure the win.
In the No. 2 singles Brewster fell 7-5, 6-1 to Castillo. Luiza Sonnervig fell 6-3, 6-1 to Kiefer in the No. 5 spot, while sister Mariana Sonnervig dropped a 6-3, 6-3 match to Vasilescu in the No. 6 singles.
The Argos still won the remaining matches as No. 33 Ojeda needed three sets to defeat Favoretto in a 7-6, 1-6, 10-7 score in the first singles, and No. 16 Oliveira defeated No. 25 Toumi 6-3, 7-6 in the third singles, giving the final score of 5-4 to the Cougars.
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