PENSACOLA, Fla. – The No. 8 UWF Men's Tennis (15-2, 7-0) pulled off a thrilling 5-3 victory over long-time conference rivals No. 12 Valdosta State University (8-3, 5-1) at the Ralph "Skeeter" Carson Tennis Complex.
With this win, the Argos snapped a 5 match conference winning streak accumulated by the Blazers and improved to 7-0 in GSC play.
This conference rivalry between the Argos and the Blazers has been around for many years, and both teams came prepared to fight until the very last point. In the doubles, the Blazers took the first point on court two after Rivas and Yim Kim defeated No. 44 Nicholas Springer and Alfonso Castellano. The Argos quickly responded by capturing the next two points on courts one and three with identical scores of 8-3.
The Argos capitalized on this slight upper hand from the doubles leading into the singles. No. 9 Bojedjiev slated another point for the Argos after his 6-3, 6-4 victory over No. 24 Simbozel. Gulf South Conference Player of the Week No. 55 Cabrera narrowed the gap even further after outlasting Pineda 6-3, 6-4. Although the Argos possessed this dominating 4-1 lead, the Blazers refused to easily give in to defeat, and they began to dig deep on each of the remaining courts. To begin their comeback, No. 21 Mas narrowly edged No. 47 LeCoutre 7-5, 6-2 on court one, and Rivas snuck past Lucas Sanchez 7-5, 6-4 on court three. With the score now set at 4-3 and two matches remaining, Senior Castellano battled back from a set down to even the match up at a set apiece. On the other court, No. 62 Rafaitin secured the opening set in a nail biting 7-6 contest, and both players continued to hold serve in the second set. Each player was incapable of breaking his opponents serve, and tiebreaker remained between a victory for the Argos or a deciding third set. Rafaitin, who has still yet to be beaten in singles, has proven that he will not fold under the pressure. In the tiebreaker, the Frenchman dropped only three points to clinch the match for the Argos.
In a double header on Saturday, the Argos will have more GSC competition with Shorter University and Mississippi College. UWF will play Shorter University at 9am CT at the Ralph "Skeeter" Carson Tennis Complex. Matches against Mississippi College will commence at 2:30pm CT.
