WINTER PARK - Heavy rain in the Orlando area kept Florida Southern and Rollins playing longer than they wanted, and the match between the two nationally ranked teams went to the limit too. The Moccasins eventually rallied for a 5-4 win, and what a rally it was.
Down 4-1 in the match, Florida Southern (11-7, 3-2 in the Sunshine State Conference) won four straight singles matches, all of them in three sets to pull it out. In three of those matches, the Mocs dropped the opening set, including the top flight where Roman Schirmaier faced off against Adrian Tan. The Mocs had already tied the match 4-4 while Schirmaier and Tan only in the second set. Tan took the opener 7-5, but Schirmaier survived two break points to win the final two, 6-4 and 6-4.
Getting Florida Southern to that point were C.J. Johnson, Ben Taylor and Brian deMontfort. Johnson and deMontfort had each lost the first set of their respective matches before coming back to win. DeMontfort had to win his second set 7-5 before closing it out with a 6-3 win in the third over Bill Rockwood. That tied the overall score between FSC and Rollins (11-7, 1-3) at four wins apiece.
Taylor's match at #4 singles ended with that score, as he slipped past Gustavo Carvalho 7-5 in the third set. Earlier in the day, it was Taylor who helped the Mocs start the match with a win, as he teamed with Greg Heartt for an 8-0 win at #3 doubles. The Mocs then had a chance to go into singles play with the lead, but Rollins' top tandem of Tan and Jeff Morris came up with a 9-8 (3) win over Schirmaier and Guenther Fercher to prevent that.
Florida Southern will be on the road for its next match, on Friday at 2:00 p.m. against Florida Tech.
