LAKELAND - Florida Southern continued its strong play at home here Friday afternoon as the 25th-ranked Moccasins extended its home win streak to four consecutive matches following its hard-fought 6-3 victory over 31st-ranked Washburn in a non-conference match at the Wynee Warden Tennis Center.
With Friday's victory, the Mocs improve to 7-6 on the season and move to 6-4 at home this year, while Washburn fell to 3-7 on the season.
In Friday's win, the Mocs opened by taking two of the three doubles matches, including its No. 1 doubles team of junior Emanuel Lueber (Tiengen, Germany) and senior Benoit Paradis (Quebec City, Quebec) posting an 8-3 win. The win was Lueber and Paradis' third straight victory on the season.
The Mocs other win in doubles came at the No. 2 spot as seniors Vladimir Barabash (Puhkova, Ukraine) and Nathan Leavitt (Bradenton, Fla.) collected an 8-5 victory. WU's doubles win came at the No. 3 spot as Chance Joost and Jacob Long defeated FSC's team of juniors Austin Comings (Heathrow, Fla.) and Carl Lundberg (Stocksund, Sweden), 8-6.
Leading 2-1 in the match, the Mocs picked up wins at the No. 1 and No. 2 spots in singles to jump out to a 4-1 lead in the match, before WU came back to post wins at the No. 3 and No. 5 spot to pull within 4-3. That made the match come down to the last two matches at No. 4 and No. 6.
At the No. 4 spot, Barabash opened with a 7-5 win in the first set over Marko Keulers, before Keulers posted a 6-4 win in the second set to force third set. In a back-and-forth third set, Barabash would ultimately prevail, 6-4 to earn the win and seal FSC's fourth consecutive match win.
Along with Barabash winning at the No. 4 spot, the Mocs also posted a win at the No. 6 spot from junior Charles Garneau (L'ancienne-Lorette, Quebec) to sweep the final two singles match. Garneau defeated Long, 7-5, 6-1.
The only other matches to go three sets on Friday came at the No. 3 and No. 5 singles spots as Washburn's Thilo Schlenker posted a win over Lundberg, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 and Joost defeated Leavitt in three sets at the No. 5 spot, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4.
FSC's other two wins came at the top of the singles line-up as 49th-ranked Lueber picked up a straight set (6-1, 6-1) win over Bobby Florence at No. 1 and Paradis earned a straight set (6-3, 7-6) win over Arek Kozaczuk at No. 2.
The Mocs will conclude its season-long 10-match homestand on Tuesday, March 25 as they host Missouri-St. Louis in a 3 p.m. match at the Wynee Warden Tennis Center.
#25 Florida Southern 6, #31 Washburn 3
03/21/14 at Lakeland, FL (Wynee Warden Tennis Center)
| Singles competition |
| 1. #49 Emanuel Lueber (FSCM) def. Florence,Bobby (WU) 6-1, 6-1 |
| 2. Benoit Paradis (FSCM) def. Kozaczuk,Arek (WU) 6-3, 7-6 |
| 3. Schlenker,Thilo (WU) def. Carl Lundberg (FSCM) 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 |
| 4. Vladimir Barabash (FSCM) def. Keulers,Marko (WU) 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 |
| 5. Joost,Chance (WU) def. Nathan Leavitt (FSCM) 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 |
| 6. Charles Garneau (FSCM) def. Long,Jacob (WU) 7-5, 6-1 |
| Doubles competition |
| 1. Emanuel Lueber/Benoit Paradis (FSCM) def. Florence,Bobby/Kozaczuk,Arek (WU) 8-3 |
| 2. Vladimir Barabash/Nathan Leavitt (FSCM) def. Schlenker,Thilo/Keulers,Marko (WU) 8-5 |
| 3. Joost,Chance/Long,Jacob (WU) def. Carl Lundberg/Austin Comings (FSCM) 8-6 |
| Match Notes |
| Washburn 3-7; National ranking #31; Regional ranking #2 |
| Florida Southern 7-6; National ranking #25; Regional ranking #8 |
| Order of finish: Doubles (2,3,1); Singles (1,2,3,5,4,6) |
