LAKELAND â€" With a pair of 8-1 wins in doubles play, and five straight-set wins in singles, #29 Florida Southern earned its first shutout win of the season and got team points from eight different players in a 9-0 victory over Bentley.
The Moccasins (6-6) started the match with junior Nathan Leavitt (Bradenton, FL) and junior Vladimir Barabash (Puhovka, Ukraine) and taking an 8-1 decision at the top doubles flight, and sophomore Carl Lundberg (Stocksund, Sweden) and junior Jorge Gutierrez (Madrid, Spain) did the same at the second flight. Junior Robbie Palmiotto (Boca Raton, FL) and sophomore Charles Garneau (L’ancienne-Lorette, QB) then picked up an 8-3 win to close out doubles competition.
Palmiotto won his singles match when his opponent retired down 1-0 in the second set, and Lundberg’s 6-3, 6-2 win at No. 4 singles clinched the match for Florida Southern.
Though sophomore Emanuel Lueber (Tiengen, Germany) and junior Benoit Paradis (Quebec City, QB) did not play doubles Friday, both players contributed in singles. Lueber dropped his first set 7-5, but still earned the win by posting 6-2 and 10-7 scores in the final two sets. That helped Florida Southern earn its first 9-0 win since defeating Bentley that way in 2012, almost a year ago to the day.
Florida Southern will play again on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. when it hosts 37th-ranked Northwood (MI).
