ROME, Ga. – The No. 6-ranked Valdosta State men's tennis team opened the week with a 7-0 victory at Shorter Tuesday afternoon.  VSU improved to 9-0 on the year and 4-0 in Gulf South Conference play, while Shorter fell to 2-8 overall and 1-8 in league play.
 
The Blazers opened the match with three-straight victories in doubles as graduate student Swann Flohr and junior Edward Etty downed James Wilkins and Caleb Harper at No. 3, 6-0, while senior Christian Felline and sophomore Lamar Bartley won 6-2 at No. 2 doubles over Yike Liu and Connor Gunnell to clinch the point.  No. 42-ranked duo of juniors Luca Mack and Rodrigo Carvalho won 7-5 at the top spot over Strahinjia Radanovic and Jan Kos for the sweep. 
 
Felline put the Blazers up 2-0 with a 6-0, 6-4 win over Liu at No. 3, while junior Christian Wedel won at No. 2, 7-6 (8-6), 6-1 over Kos for a 3-0 lead.  VSU then clinched the match with a 6-1, 6-2 win by junior Pedro Cordeiro at No. 4 over Gunnell.  Etty and Flohr each didn't drop a game at Nos. 5 and 6, while Mack, ranked No. 2 nationally in singles, needed three sets to defeat Radanovic, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4. 
 
The Blazers continue their four-match week Wednesday at 1 p.m. at No. 14 Lee, followed by a neutral site match on Saturday versus Christian Brothers in Montgomery, Ala., before concluding the week with a neutral site match on Sunday at 11 a.m. ET in Pensacola, Fla. 
 
Check back with vstateblazers.com for complete recaps and stats of each match.