CLEVELAND, Tenn. – The No. 3 Valdosta State men's tennis team was pushed by No. 7 Lee in a key Gulf South Conference matchup Wednesday afternoon. The Blazers dug deep and held on for a 5-2 victory to improve to 10-0 on the year and 5-0 in GSC play. Lee fell to 11-3 overall and 4-2 in conference play.
The battle began early in doubles as No. 34 duo of juniors
Luca Mack and
Rodrigo Carvalho came up with a 6-4 victory at the top spot over Nicolas Ramirez Ribes and Francisco Faria. At No. 2 doubles, the Blazers roared back as sophomore
Lamar Bartley and senior
Christian Felline erased a 4-1 deficit and trailed 5-4 before rallying for the 7-6 (0-0) victory over No. 44 tandem of Mike Groenendijk and Quinn Groenendijk in a first set tiebreaker to clinch the team point. At No. 3 doubles, juniors
Pedro Cordeiro and
Christian Wedel also were in a tiebreaker with Wihan Van Der Merwe and Andrew Johnston when the point was clinched.
The Blazers went up 2-0 with a 7-6 (0-0), 6-3 victory at No. 3 by Bartley over Jordi Dasi, while Mack, ranked No. 3 nationally in singles, needed three sets to down No. 21 Ramirez Ribes, 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 for a 3-0 lead. Mack raced out to a 5-0 lead in the third set on the way to his 16
th victory this season (16-1).
Carvalho dropped the first set, 6-4, at No. 2 singles to Faria, who is ranked 62
nd nationally, but responded with a 6-4 victory in the second set. He jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the decisive set, only to see Faria respond to tie the set at 5-5. Carvalho answered for a 6-5 lead on his serve, but Faria answered forcing the tiebreaker. Faria won the tiebreaker for a 3-1 VSU lead.
The Blazers needed just one win at the final three spots in singles to clinch the match. Q. Groenendijk posted a 6-3, 6-1 victory at No. 5 over Felline for a 3-2 VSU lead. Wedel, ranked 71
st nationally, won the opening set 6-3 at No. 4 over Van Der Merwe, but trailed 4-1 in the second set. He rallied with three-straight wins and then won at 4-5 and 5-6, forcing a tiebreaker where he won 7-4 to win the match for the Blazers.
Reigning GSC Player of the Week, Cordeiro, won 7-5, 5-7, 1-0 (10-8) at No. 6 as VSU won the match 5-2.
VSU returns home to prepare for a weekend of two matches, beginning with a neutral site matchup with Christian Brothers on Saturday in Montgomery, Ala., followed by a trip to Pensacola, Fla., for a matchup with No. 30 Mississippi College on Sunday. Check back with vstateblazers.com for compete recaps and stats of the matches this weekend.
