BOCA RATON - Florida Southern opened up play here Thursday morning in the 2013 Sunshine State Conference Championships by suffering a 5-1 setback to 12th-ranked Rollins in one of the four quarterfinal matches at South County Regional Park.
The loss snapped the 26th-ranked Moccasins' 13-match winning streak and dropped its season record to 15-6 overall, while Rollins improved to 15-4 overall. It was the second win this season by the Tars over the Mocs as Rollins picked up a 5-4 win in Lakeland during the regular season.
In Thursday's match, Rollins opened with an 8-0 win at the No. 2 doubles spot, while the Mocs tied the match at 1-all as its 12th-ranked No. 1 doubles team of sophomore Magda Riutort (Petra, Spain) and junior Sabine Goge (Cesis, Latvia) picked up an 8-3 win at the No. 1 spot over Rollins' Elissa DeCampli and Ashley Rosenberg. With the win, Riutort and Goge have now won 13 straight doubles matches this season and improved their record to 18-3 overall and 16-2 at the No. 1 spot.
Rollins, though, sealed the doubles point with its 8-6 win at the No. 3 spot as Mariana Salvador and Carli Davis defeated FSC junior Joalis Dominguez (Vero Beach, Fla.) and junior Laura Wichmann (Waldshut-Tiengen, Germany). The setback was the first of the season in doubles for Dominguez and Wichmann, as they entered the SSC Tournament with a 7-0 record.
Meanwhile, in the singles, Rollins earned the match win by posting wins at the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 5 spots.
At the No. 1 spot, Riutort, who is ranked 18th nationally, lost the first set 6-3 to DeCampli and then trailed 1-0 in the second set before being forced to retire. The loss snapped Riutort's 13-match win streak, while at the No. 2 spot, Goge, who is ranked 30th nationally, suffered a straight sets loss to Rosenberg, 7-5, 6-4. The loss was just the fifth of the season for Goge.
Junior Victoria Spagnuolo (Andover, Mass.) fell in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1 to Callie Whitlock at the No. 5 spot to help the Tars to its match win.
The other three singles matches were left unfinished as two of the singles matches (No. 4 and No. 6) were in a third set and the other match was in a second set. At the No. 4 spot, sophomore Christie Nunnemann (St. Simmons Island, Ga.) and Salvador had each won a set, while Wichmann and Ashley Loft had each split a set at the No. 6 spot. Dominguez had lost the first set 6-4 to Davis at the No. 3 spot, but was up 5-3 in the second set when Rollins sealed its win.
FSC will continue action in the SSC Tournament on Friday, April 19 as they will face Nova Southeastern in a women's backdraw match at 9 a.m. NSU fell into the backdraw with a 5-0 loss to No. 1 seed Barry. During the regular season, the Mocs picked up a 5-4 win over the Sharks in Fort Lauderdale on March 28. The winner of the backdraw match will play for fifth place on Saturday, April 20 at 11:30 a.m., while the loser will play for seventh place at 9 a.m. on Saturday.
