PENSACOLA, Fla. – The No. 3 Valdosta State men's tennis team dropped a 4-1 decision to No. 7 West Florida in the second round of the NCAA South Region Men's Tennis Championship, Saturday morning at Ralph "Skeeter" Carson Tennis Complex on the campus of the University of West Florida. VSU ends its season with a 15-2 record.
The Blazers, who won their league-record 14
th Gulf South Conference Championship with a 4-2 victory last month over West Florida and a 5-2 regular season victory over the Argos, couldn't quite pull off the threepeat Saturday. UWF (17-5) advances the regional final as the Argos have ended the Blazers' season each of the past three trips in the NCAA postseason. The Argos will face No. 2 Barry Sunday in the region final. The Buccaneers defeated No. 4 Saint Leo 4-1 Saturday morning. The winner Sunday will advance to the NCAA Division II Men's Tennis National Championship May 18-20 in Surprise, Ariz.
UWF came out on fire through the doubles point, winning at the top spot as No. 22 tandem of Salvador Bandeira and Gabriel Nery downed Blazer duo of No. 5-ranked seniors
Yohan Nguyen and
Florian Simbozel, 6-2. At No. 2 singles, Serdar Bojadjiev and Lluis Miralles Miro won 6-1 over VSU tandem of
Christian Felline and
Robert Cizek, 6-1.
In singles, Bojadjiev, ranked 29
th nationally, downed No. 5 Nguyen 6-2, 6-1 for a 2-0 lead for the Argos and VSU freshman and No. 35
th ranked
Christian Wedel fell at No. 3, 6-0, 7-5 to Juan Cabrera for a 3-0 deficit in the team score. Felline won 6-3, 6-3 over Nery at No. 5 to get VSU on the board at 3-1, but Juan Motta handed freshman
Luca Mack a 6-4, 6-1 loss at No. 4 to clinch the match.