MIAMI SHORES â€" Vladimir Barabash gave the Moccasins a 3-set win at the fifth singles flight and remained undefeated on the season, but top-ranked Barry won the other five singles matches to defeat #25 Florida Southern, 8-1, Friday afternoon.
The Moccasins fell to 1-3 both overall and in the Sunshine State Conference while playing their first #1-ranked opponent in the regular season since Armstrong Atlantic in 2008. They dropped the first two doubles matches Friday, 8-3 and 8-4, before junior Emanuel Lueber (Tiengen, Germany) and senior Benoit Paradis (Quebec City, QB) were narrowly defeated at the top flight, 8-6 by the 14th-ranked tandem of Fabian Groetsch and Ahmed Triki.
In singles play, the Buccaneers (9-0, 4-0) won a pair of matches where they lost just two games in each, and Nico Dreer won at the top flight, 6-3, 6-0. Two singles matches went to three sets, but by that time, Barry was already ahead 7-0. Barabash, a senior from Puhovka, Ukraine who is now 4-0 this season, took one of those for Florida Southern by defeating Eduardo Alfonzo, 3-6, 6-3, 10-6. Groetsch, who is ranked #12 nationally in singles, won the other 3-set match for Barry by downing Paradis, 4-6, 6-1, 10-5.
Florida Southern will play again Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. at Palm Beach Atlantic before returning home to play 10 straight home matches.
