DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The fifth-ranked Embry-Riddle men's tennis team earned its third Sunshine State Conference win of the season, topping No. 21 Rollins 6-1 at the Crotty Tennis Complex. The Eagles' 12 wins matches their single season best since moving to NCAA II and they are now 12-3 overall and 3-1 in league play. ERAU is currently third in the SSC standings while the Tars (9-4, 2-3) are tied for fifth.
The Eagles grabbed the doubles point courtesy of wins at the No. 1 and No. 3 positions.
Alexis Guedy and
Alvaro Diaz Rodrigo got the scoring started with their 6-3 win over Phillip McMurray and Charlie Putrino at No. 3.
Michele Iftimie and
Lukas Schneider's 6-2 loss to No. 37 Andrea Brignacca and Denis Golubev at the second spot allowed Rollins to tie the match, leaving it to the contest at No. 1 to decide the point.
The Eagles' top-flight tandem of
Juan Ortiz Couder and
Luke Paschal went down a break early in the contest against 22
nd-ranked Mikkel Baumann and Efe Comu. But the ERAU duo battled back to force a tie at 6-6 and went on to win the tiebreaker 7-5 to clinch the doubles point.
All six singles matches were tightly contested with five of the six going three sets.
Fernando Alonso was the first to register a singles point for ERAU as he rallied to top McMurray 5-7, 6-0, 6-1 on court six.
The top-flight singles contest between fourth-ranked Ortiz Couder and eighth-ranked Golubev also went to three sets. Ortiz Couder easily won the first set 6-1, and after stumbling against Golubev 6-2 in the second, he took the third 6-3 to score the Eagles third point of the afternoon.
The clinching point came in the only singles matches to be decided in straight sets. Diaz Rodrigo downed Putrino 6-3 in the first and held off the Tars' No. 4 player 7-6 (4) in the second to seal the victory for ERAU.
Rollins got a point back when Brignacca topped Iftimie 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, but the last two three-setters both went to the Eagles as Schneider battled Baumann to a 6-7 (5), 7-6 (4), 10-3 win, and No. 17 Guedy outlasted Comu 7-5, 5-7, 10-8.
The Eagles will step aside from conference play to host Southeastern at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
