MIAMI SHORES â€" The first time Florida Southern and Ouachita Baptist (AR) met this year, both teams were ranked in the top 20, and positioning themselves for another postseason run. The second time they met, both were in the top 10, and the stakes were much higher. Both matches could have gone either way, and this one went to Ouachita Baptist as the Tigers earned a 5-2 win in the second round of the NCAA South Region Tournament.
Back in March, the Moccasins jumped out to a 3-0 after double play, but the Tigers roared back with five straight singles wins, including two of them in three sets, to take the match. This time, both teams scored in doubles, though it was Ouachita Baptist that had the lead when they finished.
The Tigers (18-2) scored the first point when Tobias Kuhlmann and Till Heilshorn won 8-1 at #2 doubles, finishing well ahead of the other two matches. A match at #2 doubles could have gone either way, but the Tigers won that won too by a score of 8-6, before Florida Southern (15-8) got on the board with an 8-4 win by Michael Knoedler and Roman Schirmaier. The Moccasin duo, ranked #14 in the country, was able to pull away after holding a slim 4-3 lead.
Ouachita Baptist looked to build on its 2-1 advantage by taking an early lead in four of the six singles matches. Knoedler and Nicolas Bigler were the only Moccasins to hold a lead after three games in the first set, with each of them ahead 2-1. Guenther Fercher eventually took a 3-2 lead in his match too, but by then, OBU was pulling away in two others and picked up first-set wins by Jean-Charles Diame and Daniel Moser.
Knoedler won his first set, 6-2, but Bigler and Fercher lost theirs, putting even more pressure on the Mocs.
When Knoedler, ranked #15 individually, beat 26th-ranked Jan Plewinski 6-0 in the second set, it tied the overall score between Florida Southern and Ouachita Baptist at 2-2. The Mocs were also making noise elsewhere, as Schirmaier, Bigler and Ben Taylor all had leads, threatening to even up their singles matches at one set apiece.
However, Taylor saw his lead slip away, as Moser completed a 6-4, 6-4 win at #6 singles to give OBU the advantage again, and Heilshorn downed Christian Lange with another straight-set win at #3 to put the Tigers on top, 4-2. Kuhlman then gave them the clinching point with his own straight-set victory over Fercher.
Ouachita Baptist advances to play top-seeded and 4th-ranked Barry on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. The Tigers, whose only two losses this year came to top-ranked Valdosta State, defeated the Buccaneers 5-4 back on March 24. The winner advances to the NCAA Division II National Tournament in Altamonte Springs, May 12-15.
