BOCA RATON - The Florida Southern Moccasins opened the 2013 Sunshine State Conference Tournament here Thursday at South County Regional Park by falling 5-1 to sixth-ranked Rollins.
With the loss, the 29th-ranked Mocs fall to 13-9 overall on the season and 0-2 this year against Rollins, while the Tars improve to 12-7 and move to Friday's semifinal match against top-seed Barry. The Mocs will play in the fifth place match of the backdraw on Saturday, April 20 at 2:30 p.m.
In the SSC Championship, matches are halted after the clinching point has been scored for a team.
On Thursday, the Mocs lone point came in doubles as the No. 2 spot as junior Vladimir Barabash (Puhovka, Ukraine) and sophomore Carl Lundberg (Stocksund, Sweden) paired together for a 9-8 (9-7) win over Rollins' No. 2 team of Malte Christensen and Robin Marchione. It was the first time this season that Barabash and Lundberg had been paired in doubles together as Barabash's regular partner at No. 2 doubles, junior Nathan Leavitt (Bradenton, Fla.) suffered an injury in the Mocs regular season finale against Webber International that will cause him to miss the remainder of the year.
The Tars took the other two doubles matches, but the Mocs made them work for the wins as both were won by 8-4 scores.
Meanwhile, in singles action, the Tars posted wins at the No. 3, 4 and 6 spots to earn the victory. At the No. 3 spot, Lundberg fell in straight sets to 34th-ranked Marchione (6-1,6-3), while Barabash fell to Sebastian Hafner at the No. 4 spot (6-2, 6-1) and sophomore Charles Garneau (L'ancienne-Lorette, Quebec) lost to Cooper Maxwell (6-1, 6-1) at the No. 6 spot.
The Tars had won the first set in the other three singles matches and were leading in the second set of all three matches when Hafner wrapped up his win over Barabash at the No. 4 spot.
FSC will now wait nearly 48 hours before returning to the court as they play in the fifth game match of the backdraw on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. The Mocs will face the winner of Friday's backdraw match that will featured No. 7 seed Eckerd against either No. 3 seed Saint Leo or No. 6 seed Florida Tech. Those two teams were playing their quarterfinal match later in day on Thursday. ÂÂ
