PENSACOLA - Sophomore Magda Riutort's three-set win at the No. 1 singles spots here Sunday afternoon was the winning point for Florida Southern in its 5-4 victory over ninth-ranked West Florida in a key non-conference, South Region match at the Ralph "Skeeter" Carson Tennis Center.
Riutort's win helped the Moccasins claim its 12th consecutive victory and improve its record to 14-5 on the season, while UWF, who is ranked third in the latest NCAA D-II South Regional rankings, fell to 15-5 on the year.
The win over UWF helped the Mocs finished 4-0 on the weekend in its four South Region matches in Pensacola against Gulf South Conference foes. Three of the four wins came by shutout.
With the match tied at 4-4, sophomore Riutort picked up her 12th straight singles win with her three-set victory over 27th-ranked Monika Kochanova. For the weekend in Pensacola, Riutort, who is ranked 18th nationally, posted a 3-0 record. In Sunday's win, Kochanova picked up a 7-6 win in the first set, before Riutort tied the set with a 6-4 win in the second set and then earned a 6-3 win in the third and final set.
The Mocs opened Sunday's match by winning two of the three doubles matches to the Argonauts as UWF's only doubles win came at teh No. 2 spot. The Mocs No. 1 team of Riutort and junior Sabine Goge (Cesis, Latvia) defeated UWF's No. 1 team of Kochanova and Giovana Patitucci, 8-4 and its No. 3 team of junior Laura Wichmann (Waldshut-Tiengen, Germany) and junior Joalis Dominguez (Vero Beach, Fla.) posted an 8-5 win over UWF's Nina Bubelova and Fernanda Amaral.
In singles action, the Argos posted wins at the No. 2, 5 and 6 spots, while FSC picked up wins No. 1, 3 and 4 spots.
At the No. 3 spot, Dominguez defeated Bubelova in straight sets (6-2, 6-1) and sophomore Christie Nunnemann (St. Simmons Island, Ga.) posted a three-set win over Mariana Sonnervig at the No. 4 spot (7-5, 2-6, 6-3) and also the win at No. 1 by Riutort. ÂÂ
The Mocs will close out the regular season on Wednesday, April 10 as they travel to Melbourne for a 3 p.m. Sunshine State Conference match against Florida Tech.
