April 3, 2008

PENSACOLA, Fla. The now third ranked West Florida Men's Tennis Team (17-3, 4-0 GSC) earned another victory over a GSC opponent this season by defeating eighth ranked Ouachita-Baptist (10-2). The Argonauts came from an unfinished match against BYU-Hawaii, due to the rain two days ago, to face the Tigers this Thursday, April 3rd at the Roger Scott Tennis Complex, located Pensacola. The Argonauts defeated the Tigers after being 4-2 down in the score.

The Tigers earned the 2-1 lead after the doubles action. In the first doubles position, Eduardo Cavasotti (senior/Florianopolis, Brazil) and Luis Arboleda (junior/Medellin, Colombia) fell short 8-6 to the 14thranked duo from the Tigers. Nicolas Barrientos (senior/Cali, Colombia) and Patrick Bateman (sophomore/Apopka, Fla.) had a good battle against Tigers Vagen Akanapian and Jan Plewinski 8-3 in the second doubles spot. Luiz Bernardi (senior/Campinas, Brazil) and Diego Zorzi (senior/Buenos Aires, Argentina) fell to the Tigers third team 8-4. After the doubles play, the Tigers got the 2-1 lead over the Argonauts.

In the singles action, every single match was close and well fought for. In order to beat the Tigers, the Argonauts would need to win four out of the six singles matches played. Things did not look so good for the Argos when 23rd ranked Cavasotti fell short in the first position with a 6-2, 6-3 score to the16th nationally ranked player from Ouachita-Baptist, giving the Tigers the 3-1 lead. The Argos bounced back with Jose Ycaza pulling a straight sets win in the sixth position by a 6-2, 6-4 score over Vasek Stverka. However, right after Ycaza's win, Argonaut Zorzi fell in three sets to the Tigers in the third singles position, 6-3,1-6,6-2, giving the Tigers the 4-2 lead. The Argonauts would need then to win all three matches remaining on courts, which all went to a deciding third set. In the second singles position, 17th nationally ranked Barrientos rallied from a set down to defeat Jan Plewinski with a 3-6,6-2,6-0 score, giving the Argos some hope. In the fifth singles spot, Bateman also rallied from a set down to overcome Jakub Smid, 3-6,7-5,6-1. Now with the match tied at 4-4, all the eyes went to court #4, where Argonaut Bernardi and his opponent were about to start the deciding third set. After a 40 minute third set, Bernardi posted a 6-3, 7-5, 6-2 score over Tiger Vagen Akapian, clinching the match, hitting a final score of 5-4 for the Argos.

The Argonauts earned its seventeenth win of the season, fourth over a GSC opponent to improve its overall record to 17-3 and its GSC record to 4-0. The Argos will return to action on Saturday, April 5, 2008, when they face Division II 15th ranked Lander. This will be one of the last few matches the Argonauts will play at home this season. The match will be played at 9:00a.m. CT at the Ralph "Skeeter" Carlson Complex, located at the UWF main campus in Pensacola.

Singles
#1 Ondra Vana (OBU) def. Eduardo Cavasotti (UWF) 6-2, 6-3
#2 Nicolas Barrientos (UWF) def, Jan Plewinski (OBU) 3-6,6-2,6-0
#3 Till Heilshorn (OBU) def. Diego Zorzi (UWF) 6-3,1-6,6-2
#4 Luiz Bernardi (UWF) def. Vagen Akapian (OBU) 6-3, 5-7, 6-2
#5 Patrick Bateman (UWF) def. Jakub Smid (OBU) 3-6,7-5,6-1
#6 Jose Ycaza (UWF) def. Vasek Stverka (OBU) 6-2, 6-4

Doubles
#1 Vana/Smid (OBU) def. Cavasotti/Luis Arboleda (UWF) 8-6
#2 Barrientos/Bateman (UWF) def. Akapian/Plewinski (OBU) 8-3
#3 Isaac Anders/Heilshorn (OBU) def. Bernardi/Zorzi (UWF) 8-4