WINTER PARK, Fla. (March 17, 2026) – Surrounded by a quiet campus during Spring Break, the Tars brought the noise Tuesday afternoon to the tune of a 4-0 sweep of #4 Wayne State. The emphatic win improves Rollins to 11-1 on the season, and scripts a resume which now includes two top ten victories.
Playing from court three,
Lawson Prather and
Nico de Giacomo got off to a solid start with a victory in their first game. The match looked to be heading towards an early stalemate, though, in the moments to follow. The pair quickly found themselves in a love – forty deficit, a hole that is typically insurmountable. Yet, the Tars pair playing line three is anything but typical. Pather and de Giacomo not only rattled off five straight points to double their lead, but they also ripped off a total of ten consecutive bouts to bring things to 3-0. Simultaneously,
Richard Stoiberer fired a winner down the line on court one to put himself and partner
Pete Tran up 2-1 in their match. The sequence just about summarizes how things went today in Winter Park.
Rollins raced off to a match lead thanks to those stellar performances on the bookends. Both lines one and three finished 6-1 in the home team's favor. Not to be outdone were
Mo Anterist and
Fabian Gusic from the middle. The powerful tandem had things going from the jump and possessed a 5-3 lead when the doubles point was awarded.
Anterist made sure to join the fun in singles play. His win on line five propelled the Tars one step closer to etching another match in the win column. The sophomore went 6-3, 6-1 on court five, exclaiming to his teammates, "It's a match on 5, boys!"
But before Anterist could alert his comrades,
Lawson Prather was already sharing in his good fortunes. Prather cruised from court two, replicating the straight set variety in 6-1, 6-4 fashion. Cool, calm and composed, Prather's steady play provided Rollins with their first singles success. Anterist quickly followed and by nature of today's match being played as clinch, the Tars were on the doorstep of an overall match triumph in a flash.
Pete Tran did not waver at the opportunity. With his family on hand and cheering him on, the local product put out an outstanding performance. Tran modeled after the straight set blueprint demonstrated by his teammates, beginning with a 6-2 result. Then, with things knotted at five and a possible tiebreaker looming, the sophomore did not blink. Tran hunkered down in consecutive games, letting out a "Let's Go Tars!" to the roar of the crowd. Last week, Tran was on the heels of wins two times, all to be restrained by way of the match already being clinched. Today, his match was the exclamation point on a sweep of the fourth ranked Warriors.
Elsewhere,
Nico de Giacomo was well on his way to third consecutive singles win, taking the first set and finding himself in a tight one to follow. Fellow captain Richie Stoiberer showed his grit on court three, bouncing back from a defeat in the opener with an impressive 6-2 outcome immediately afterwards. Finally,
Fabian Gusic, rallying the boys from court one amid his match, was preparing to do battle in a winner-take-all third.
The men are clicking, now winning four matches in a row heading into Thursday's duel. The buzz is palpable and not lost on head coach
Jay Friedman.
"Could definitely feel the excitement in the team going into today's match, and I think we were all happy to prove ourselves a little bit against a top 5 team," Friedman uttered in a post-match reflection with one journalist.
He continued, "Really excited for how sharp we looked in doubles, and very excited for the end of the week to have more time to work on things that we haven't had time for."
Up next for Rollins is Emporia State in what will be the first meeting between the clubs. The Hornets, migrating from Kansas, will join the Tars for doubles play beginning at 1:30pm. You can follow the action live,
right here.
