LAKELAND â€" Getting three points in doubles before picking up three points on straight-set singles wins, 10th-ranked Florida Southern defeated #23 Tampa 7-2 on Wednesday afternoon, pushing the Moccasins’ winning streak to six matches.
The Moccasins (12-3, 2-2 Sunshine State Conference) swept doubles play but it wasn’t easy. While senior Joalis Dominguez (Vero Beach, Fla.) and senior Laura Wichmann (Waldshut-Tiengen, Germany) won their match at the No. 3 position, 8-2, the other two matches were decided by two games. Junior Olivia Spagnuolo (Andover, Mass.) and freshman Dominique Friedrichs (Hufingen, Germany) pulled out an 8-6 win at No. 2, and senior Sabine Goge (Cesis, Latvia) and junior Magda Riutort (Petra, Spain) survived a 9-7 decision at the top doubles flight.
The win for Goge and Riutort was their 40th as partners over the last three years. It also came against another nationally-ranked doubles team, their first such win of the season. They nearly had another earlier this season, but dropped a 9-7 decision in their match against Lynn’s 5th-ranked team of Ioana Ivan and Vale Confalonieri.
All three of Florida Southern’s primary doubles teams have reached double-digit wins on the season, something that’s happened only four times in the last 30 years. The last time the Mocs had three doubles teams win at least a dozen happened in 1991. The 1983 Moccasins got at least 20 wins from each of their primary doubles partners.
Florida Southern went on to win four of the six singles matches against Tampa (9-7, 1-6 SSC), with Riutort, Goge and Dominguez winning in the 1-2-3 slots in straight sets. Riutort had the most challenging match before dispatching Thashia Garcia 6-4, 6-4 at No. 1. Meanwhile, at the No. 2 position, Goge downed Meg Wladimirski, 6-3, 6-2 in the only singles match of the day featuring two ranked opponents.
The Moccasins also got a 3-set win from Friedrichs at No. 4 after she split the first two with Viviana Tedino, 4-6, 6-0. With the team victory already assured, Friedrichs then took the super tie-breaker 10-7.
Wednesday ended a 9-day stretch for the Moccasins that saw them play six matches, and all of them resulted in wins. The Mocs won’t play again until Wednesday, April 2, when they travel to Saint Leo for a make-up match that was re-scheduled from an earlier rainout.
