VALDOSTA, Ga. – The No. 6-ranked Valdosta State men's tennis team jumped all over visiting No. 10 Lynn early and then held off a furious Fighting Knight rally for a 4-2 victory Saturday morning at the VSU Tennis Complex.
 
With the win, VSU improved to 2-0 on the year, while Lynn fell to 4-3.  The Blazers used a 6-2 victory at the top spot in doubles as junior Luca Mack and Rodrigo Carvalho won over Haktan Garayev and Gabriele Felline and juniors Christian Wedel and Pedro Cordeiro won at No. 3 doubles, 6-3 to clinch the point.
 
Mack, ranked No. 2 nationally, made quick work of Diego Gonzalez at the top spot in singles, 6-3, 6-0, for a 2-0 lead, while Carvalho downed Felline, 6-2, 6-2, at the No. 2 spot for a 3-0 lead.  Felline is the brother of Blazer senior Christian Felline.  
 
With a 3-0 lead in the team score, C. Felline had a 5-3 lead in the second set at No. 5 singles against Ray Chavez as VSU was one game from clinching the match.  From there, Chavez won the second set in a 7-6 tiebreaker and Garayev won in straight-sets over Cordeiro at No. 6, 6-4, 6-3, and Gianmarco Amatiste won 6-2, 7-6 (7-1) over Wedel for a 3-2 score.  
 
Blazer junior Lamar Bartley opened his match at No. 3 singles with a 7-6 (7-3) victory over Yaron Guberman, but Guberman came back with a 6-4 victory in the second set.  Bartley then dug deep for a 6-0 victory over Guberman in the third set to clinch the match, 4-2.  C. Felline and Chavez were in the third set when the match was clinched. 
 
The Blazers continue at home Sunday at 12 p.m. versus top-ranked Barry at the VSU Tennis Complex.  VSU's match against Columbus State, which was scheduled for Tuesday, Mar. 7 at 2 p.m., is postponed.  No makeup date has been announced at this time. Check back with vstateblazers.com for further updates.  Following Sunday's match with Barry, VSU is scheduled to host Tuskegee at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Mar. 9 at the VSU Tennis Complex.