LAKELAND, Fla. (April 17, 2025) – Riding high off of a senior day victory, the Rollins Tars took to the road for a Thursday matinee with Florida Southern. In a back and forth match, the Tars fell at the hands of the #18 ranked Mocs, 4-3.
Florida Southern earned the doubles point thanks to a grueling 7-6 tiebreaking win on the third court. On a bright note,
Nancy Liu and
Amina Taibi combined to win their second straight match as a duo playing on the number one court, while teammates
Milla Falster and
Stella Fruijtier battled it out on court two. It was the team of
Polina Vlasova and
Nina Mitrofanova that fell just short playing on the third court, but head coach
Tasi Purcell Batista was proud of the effort all around.
The fight was on display on the singles courts as well. After a quick match was decided in the Mocs favor on court six, Taibi continued her winning ways with a victory on court two, dominating 6-0, 6-1. Florida Southern again pulled out a narrow match in number four singles, as well as on court one where
Nancy Liu fell 6-0, 1-6, 6-7 in a tiebreak. Though the match was decided with Florida Southern's clinching victory, matches on courts three and five continued.
In #3 singles,
Polina Vlasova returned the favor with a tiebreak victory of her own. After dropping the first set, the graduate student came back to win after the game went into deuce for the second consecutive set. Finally, in the winner-take-all third set, Vlasova cruised to a 10-4 win to secure a W. Lastly, on court five,
Nina Mitrofanova avenged her doubles loss as well, winning 6-4, 7-6, grabbing the third point of the day for the Tars.
While the Tars fell just short on the scoreboard, the toughness displayed was commendable. Head coach
Tasi Purcell Batista had this to say:
"The team fought really hard today. They never gave up and played with tons of grit. It doesn't always go your way with a win, but I'm very proud of them and all the work they have put in this season. We now look forward to the conference tournament next week."
As Coach Tasi alludes to, the conference tournament will begin next Friday, spanning the entire weekend of April 25-27. The Tars, who have clinched the #6 seed, will once again be on the road as they head to West Palm Beach where the postseason event will be hosted by Palm Beach Atlantic.
