BRADENTON, Fla. (April 20, 2017) - The fourth
seeded Tars needed a comeback to defeat the fifth seeded Florida
Southern Southern Moccasins in the first round of the Sunshine
State Conference. This marks the second time that Rollins defeated
Florida Southern in less than a week, as the two teams closed their
regular seasons against each other on Saturday. With the win No.
28 Rollins improves to 11-9 on the year, and advance to the SSC
Tournament Semifinals. The Mocs end their year ranked No. 38
nationally, with a 10-11 overall record.
Florida Southern captured wins out of the first two doubles
positions to take a 2-1 lead into singles play. The Tars' duo of
Francesco
Racanelli and Ziad
Melhaoui made sure Rollins avoided the sweep, defeating Blaine
Miller and Jose de Sario, 8-5, in the third spot.
The Mocs won the first decision of singles play out of the
second spot, taking a commanding 3-1 lead. Straight set wins from
Sami
Kirberg and Patrick
Sell, got the Tars back in the contest, tying the match at
3-3. Kirberg defeated Brian Slivonik 6-2, 6-3 in the third
position, while Sell bested Fabian Lundberg 6-4, 6-0 in the number
one spot. The matches played in the fourth, fifth, sixth positions
all went into decisive third sets. Cody
Gubin recovered from a first set loss to down Miller 2-6, 6-1,
6-4 in the sixth position. The Mocs tied the match at 4-4 with a
win in the fourth spot, setting up Daniel
Ferl to be the hero for the Tars in the fifth position. The
Landsberg, Germany native secured a hard fought, 3-6, 6-2, 7-5,
win, moving the Tars on to the next round.
Rollins will return to the court tomorrow, April 21, for SSC
Tournament Semifinal action against the top seeded Barry
Buccaneers. Barry enters the tournament as the second ranked team
in the country. Fans can follow all of the action at SunshineStateConference.com.
For the latest news, updates, and information on the Rollins
tennis teams, fans can visit RollinsSports.com. Fans can also stay
up-to-date on the latest #TARnation news by following Rollins
Sports on Facebook, Twitter,
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