PENSACOLA, Fla. - The Valdosta State Blazer tennis team won 18 straight sets on Saturday to claim a pair of wins over Christian Brothers and Florida Southern in Pensacola, Fla.
The two victories stretched VSU's current winning streak to seven matches and improved the team to 10-3 overall, 6-1 in Gulf South Conference play. The Bucs record fell to 1-4 overall and 0-2 in conference play, while FSC dropped to 4-16 overall.
In the first match, the Blazers blasted the Bucs in doubles action with an 8-3 win for
Ramon Weil and
Gereon Heitmann at No. 1 over Austin Essary and Eric Mueller, followed by an 8-0 victory for
Niklas Herbring and
Edward Nguyen at No. 2 against Nick Wiseman and Daniel D'Alto.
In the third and final doubles matchup, CBU's Abel Kim and Nick Cotros fell 8-0 to VSU's pairing of
Joachim Schemm and
Francisco Yim Kim.
Singles play resulted in more of the same, as
Leo Blay cruised to a 6-0, 6-0 victory at No. 1, while Yim Kim picked up a 6-2, 6-2 win at No. 2 over Mueller and Herbring blasted Wiseman 6-0, 6-0 at No. 3.
The final three matches produced three more wins for the Blazers, as Heitmann smoked D'alto 6-0, 6-0 at No. 4, Nguyen downed Kim 6-0, 6-0 at No. 5, and Weil hammered Cotros 6-0, 6-0 to close out the match at No. 6.
In the second match against the Mocs of Florida Southern, Herbring and Nguyen teamed up at No. 1 to defeat Fabian Lundberg and Laurent Mailloux, before Heitmann joined Weil at No. 2 doubles to cruise to an 8-2 victory over Arther Viallaneix and Blaine Miller.
The final doubles set of the day went to Schemm and Yim Kim, who teamed up at No. 3 to claim an 8-3 win over Charles Garneau and Derek Bell.
In singles action against FSC, Blay stayed hot to pick up a 6-4, 6-0 win over Lundberg, while Herbring won 6-2, 6-0 over Mailloux at No. 2.
Heitmann added to the Blazers' success at No. 3 with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Viallaneix, and Nguyen kept the perfect day intact at No. 4 when he defeated Garneau 6-4, 6-2.
In the closing sets, Weil and Schemm put an exclamation point on the day with 7-5, 6-1 and 6-1, 6-2 victories at No. 5 and No. 6 over Miller and Bell, respectively.
The Blazers return to action next Thursday in Pensacola at 9:30 a.m. against Hawaii Pacific, who currently ranks No. 1 in the country, according to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings. Follow Blazer Tennis all season long at www.vstateblazers.com.
