MIAMI SHORES, Fla. – The 10
th-ranked Embry-Riddle men's tennis team (2-2) won two of three doubles, but No. 7 Barry (3-0) rebounded to take five of the six singles matches to top the Eagles 6-3, Sunday at the Buccaneer Tennis Center.
The first doubles match off the court was at the third position where Vivien Versier and Fernando Tous topped
Rodolfo Arreygue and
Luke de Caires 8-3. At No. 2 doubles,
Juan Ortiz Couder and
Mickael Faucher bested Carlos Gomez and Thomas Bugeaud 9-8 to make the team score 1-1.
Barry's top-flight tandem of Ahmed Triki and Pierre Montrieul had match point against
Carlos Becke and
Deepak Vishavkarma, but the ERAU duo fought back and one hour and 25 minutes after their match began, the Eagles topped the Barry pair 9-8 to take a 2-1 edge into singles.
Montrieul tied the team score at 2-2 when he downed Vishavkarma 6-1, 6-1 on court three. Gomez, the Bucs 11
th-ranked player, made the score 3-2 with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Becke at the second spot, followed by 35
th-ranked Dreer's 6-3, 6-4 decision against Arreygue at the fourth spot.
The clincher came on court five where Fabian Pronnet got the better of a 6-2, 6-4 match-up against
Andres Donayre.
The final two matches both required extra frames to determine the outcome. At No. 6, de Caires dropped the first set to Versier 6-1, but battled back to take the second 7-6 (8-6). In the tiebreaker, the ERAU senior claimed the lone singles point for the Blue and Gold, topping Versier 10-5.
The final match off the court was at the top spot between second-ranked Triki and Ortiz Couder. In each of his three previous matches this season, Ortiz Couder took his opponent to three sets, and Sunday was no different. Ortiz Couder took the first set 7-6 (5), but Triki forced a tiebreaking third set by taking the second 6-4. The final frame was as closely contested as the first two, and in the end it was Triki who managed to hold off Ortiz Couder 12-10 for the win.
The Eagles will have two days to recover before returning to the courts to host Bethune Cookman at the Crotty Tennis Complex at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
