LAKELAND â€" Eleventh-ranked Magda Riutort and #35 Sabine Goge each won come-from-behind, 3-set singles matches, but Barry used three doubles points to take an early lead and defeat Florida Southern 6-3 in a battle of top-20 teams Saturday at the Wynee Warden Tennis Center.
The Buccaneers (3-0 overall, 2-0 Sunshine State Conference, ranked #5) scored the first point of the match with an 8-1 win by their number two doubles team of Linda Fritschken and Kimmy Twelker. They also won at number one doubles where Elisabeth Abanda and Emma Onila upset the Moccasins’ 12th-ranked duo of Goge and Riutort, 8-3. The final doubles match was the closest of the three, with Akemi Maehama and Karina Goia edging past the Mocs’ Crystal Copeland and Laura Wichmann, 8-6.
The Moccasins (1-2 overall, 0-2 SSC, ranked #17) earned their first point by default at #6 singles before Barry won three straight singles points to clinch the match.
Florida Southern, however, won the final two points behind its two nationally ranked singles players, and both of them were victorious after dropping the first set. After splitting a pair of 6-3 decisions, Riutort eventually put away Abanda in the top flight with a 12-10 win in the super tie-breaker. A few minutes later, Goge, won her match with a 7-5 tie-breaker victory over 19th-ranked Linda Fritschken.
It was Goge’s second win of the season over a top-20 opponent, with the other coming against the 2nd-ranked NAIA player in the country, Hui-I Huang of Embry-Riddle.
Florida Southern will play its next match on Wednesday, February 20 at Eckerd College, beginning at 3:00 p.m.
