ORLANDO, Fla. – The top-seeded Valdosta State men's tennis team won its 21
st match of the season with a hard-fought, 4-1 victory over No. 9-seed Cameron (Okla.) Friday afternoon to advance to the national semifinal round on Sunday.
The Blazers (21-0) were tested by the No. 12-ranked Aggies (17-4). VSU opened the match with a victory at doubles as Blazer top duo of juniors
Rodrigo Carvalho and
Luca Mack, ranked 15
th nationally, downed No. 17-ranked Tomas Almeida and Thomas Cardona, 6-3. Then, at No. 3 doubles, VSU juniors
Pedro Cordeiro and
Christian Wedel dispatched Kristian Kubik and Emilio Seebach, 6-3, to win the team point. VSU duo of sophomore
Lamar Bartley and senior
Christian Felline were leading No. 18 Joao Duleba and Baptiste Mercier, 5-4, when the point was clinched.
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The upset-minded Aggies responded in singles and put a scare into the Blazers, but three wins at Nos. 4-6 by VSU were what the Blazers needed to advance. VSU now will battle fellow South Region foe No. 4-seed Barry on Sunday at 4 p.m. for a berth in Monday's National Championship match, scheduled for 7 p.m.
Felline won 6-2, 6-2 at No. 5 singles for a 2-0 lead over Duleba, mere seconds before Cordeiro won 6-3, 6-4 at No. 6 singles for a 3-0 lead over Alvaro Chavez. Cameron pulled within 3-1 with a win at No. 3 as Mercier won 7-6 (7-0), 7-5 over Bartley, but Wedel, who is ranked No. 55 nationally, won the first set 7-6 (7-5) over Kubik at No. 4 singles and trailed 0-3 in the second set, rattling off four-straight games to take command and eventually the victory advancing the Blazers to the semifinals.
In a pair of ranked matches at the top two positions in the lineups, No. 2-ranked Mack for the Blazers dropped the first set versus No. 17 Almeida, 4-6, but rallied for a 6-1 victory in the second set, while Almeida responded leading 2-0 in the third when the match was decided. No. 48-ranked Carvalho also dropped the first set at No. 2 singles to Cardona, who is ranked 57
th nationally, 3-6, but responded with a 6-4 victory in the second set. Carvalho trailed in the third set 1-2 when the Blazers won the match.
VSU defeated Barry 4-3 in Valdosta on Mar. 5 in a thriller as the Buccaneers entered ranked No. 1 nationally then. It was one of two wins this season over top-ranked teams for the Blazers with the other versus Saint Leo (4-0) on Mar. 24.
The Blazers and Buccaneers have not played in the postseason since Barry won 5-1 in the regional final in 2017 at Barry. VSU is 2-3 all-time against Barry in the NCAA postseason defeating the Buccaneers 5-2 in the national championship match in 2011, while Barry won in the title match, 5-4, in 2010.
