LAKELAND â€" Florida Southern pulled out a pair of 9-7 wins in doubles play Tuesday, before juniors Benoit Paradis and Vladimir Barabash won two singles matches that gave the 29th-ranked Moccasins a 5-4 win over Merrimack (MA). It was the sixth win in the last seven matches for Florida Southern.
With both teams ranked #7 in their respective regions, the Moccasins (9-6) faced an early battle in doubles play, even with junior Jorge Gutierrez (Madrid, Spain) and sophomore Carl Lundberg (Stocksund, Sweden) winning their match, 8-3.
The top two doubles flights both went much longer, with Paradis (Quebec City, QB) and sophomore Emanuel Lueber (Tiengen, Germany) outlasting Matt Lipinski and Matt Pronseti in a match-up of regionally-ranked top-flight doubles teams; and Barabash (Puhovka, Ukraine) and junior Nathan Leavitt (Bradenton, FL) did the same at the No. 2 position. The win by Barabash and Leavitt was their seventh straight as doubles partners.
Those two 9-7 wins tipped the match in Florida Southern’s favor, and after Merrimack (4-4) got the first singles point, Paradis and Barabash clinched the win for the Moccasins at No. 2 and No. 3 singles. Paradis was a 6-0, 6-1 winner, and Barabash took his match, 6-0, 6-2. The win by Paradis was his fourth this season against a top-20 regional opponent with only one defeat.
The Warriors won the final three singles matches, including a pair of 3-setters at No. 5 and No. 6 where sophomores Charles Garneau (L’ancienne-Lorette, QB) and Austin Comings (Heathrow, FL) each tied things up after dropping the first set. With the team result already decided, the third sets were played as super tie-breakers.
Florida Southern will play the final match of its 11-match home-stand on Wednesday when its hosts West Alabama at 3:00 p.m.
