BOCA RATON - 17th-ranked Florida Southern returned to Sunshine State Conference play here Sunday afternoon as the Moccasins fell 8-1 to fourth-ranked Lynn University in dual action at the Perper Tennis Complex.
Through the first four SSC matches of the season, the Mocs have played three Top 15 nationally ranked foes and overall, FSC has played five nationally-ranked teams as Embry-Riddle was ranked second in NAIA when the Mocs earned a 6-3 win and Palm Beach Atlantic was ranked 27th when the two teams met on Friday in West Palm Beach. The Mocs fell 5-4 in the match against the Sailfish.
With Sunday's setback, FSC falls to 2-4 overall and 1-3 in the SSC, while Lynn improves to 6-1 overall and 4-1 in the league.
The Mocs earned their only victory of the match at No. 3 doubles as junior Joalis Dominguez (Vero Beach, Fla.) and sophomore Olivia Spagnuolo (Andover, Mass.) picked up an 8-1 win over Lynn's Aleks Vukadinovic and Alina Jane. The other two matches went in favor of Lynn as the Fighting Knights' No. 1 team of Valentine Confalonieri and Ioana Ivan, who are ranked third nationally, defeated the Mocs No. 1 team of junior Sabine Goge (Cesis, Latvia) and sophomore Magda Riutort (Petra, Spain), who are ranked 12th nationally, 8-3 and Lynn's No. 2 team of Kim Przeszlowski and Andrea Berkova, that is ranked seventh nationally defeated the Mocs No. 2 teams of sophomore Christie Nunnemann (St. Simmons Island, Ga.) and junior Victoria Spagnuolo (Andover, Mass.), 8-2.
Meanwhile, in singles play, the Fighting Knights won all six of the matches, but the Mocs made things difficult for Lynn at several of the spots.
At the No. 2 spot, 35th-ranked Goge made 15th ranked Ivan work for her win as she forced a tiebreaker in the first set, 7-6 (7-5) and then picked up a 6-2 win in the second set, while at the No. 5 spot, Victoria Spagnuolo battled with Przeszlowski as Przeszlowski earned a 6-2 win in the first set, before rallying from 5-0 down in the second set to pick up a 7-5 win and then at the No. 3 spot, Dominguez forced Jane into a third-set tiebreaker before losing. Jane won the first set 6-3, but Dominquez took the second set, 7-6, but Jane earned a 10-2 win in the tiebreaker.
In the other singles matches, No. 11 ranked Riutort fell in straight sets (6-1, 6-3) to 10th-ranked Confalonieri at the No. 1 spot, while Nunnemann fell 6-0, 6-2 to Berkova at the No. 4 spot and Ana Kriz defeated Moccain sophomore Pamela Paradis (Quebec City, Quebec) in a very competitve match as Kriz won 6-3, 6-4.
The Mocs will return home to begin a seven-game homestand at the Wynee Warden Tennis Center on Wednesday, March 6 with a 3 p.m. SSC match against Saint Leo. The match was originally scheduled for Feb. 14, but was postponed due to rain.
