PENSACOLA, Fla. - No. 1 West Florida men's tennis (17-1, 6-1 GSC) took on its fourth straight ranked opponent, one it had a bone to pick with after losses last season to this squad in the regular season and GSC Semifinals, the lone losses in the all-time record with this squad. As they have all season, the Argos rose to the occasion and dug deep to pull out a 4-3 victory over No. 23 Mississippi College (10-6, 2-1 GSC) on Friday afternoon at Ralph "Skeeter" Carson Tennis Complex. UWF improves its program record against the Choctaws to 13-2.
The visitors featured last year's GSC Player and Freshman of the Year in Alex Benichou Blanchard, and he was as advertised. Coming in at No. 48 in the ITA DII Doubles Rankings, he and Rafael Sabio stunned No. 38
Tomas Leston and
Sebastian Sotelo on court two 6-0. One court up, however, No. 3 doubles pairing
Diego Duran and
Sebastian Rondon took their matchup 6-1 over Florian Walcher and Gustavo Tedesco. At the bottom of the lineup,
Miguel Cabrera and
Bernardo Costa won 6-2 over Alvaro Saint Martin and Sergio Ramirez Ocana to easily claim the doubles point, a crucial outcome to this closely-matched contest. Costa made his return to the lineup for just the second time this year, placed in a critical spot after only previously entering doubles versus UW-Superior.
Rondon, up to No. 12 in the DII Singles Rankings, easily put away Walcher 6-1, 6-2 on court two before
Albin Ekenros pulled out a 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 win over Ramirez Ocana at No. 5 to put his team one point away from clinching. It did not come easy, however. In a top-10 contest at the top of the lineup, as No. 5 Blanchard claimed a pair of 6-4 sets over No. 6 Cabrera to place his team in the scorebook. On court six, Saint Martin pulled out a 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 victory over Leston to get within one before the match was knotted even with a comeback 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 win by Tedesco over No. 44 Duran. It came down to the contest one court up at No. 3, where No. 50 Sotelo also had to make a come-from-behind effort and succeeded in a 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 match-clinching victory over Sabio.
UWF looks to add another win to its impressive ledge next week on Wednesday, April 2, at 1 pm at Auburn Montgomery.
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