Mocs Season Ends With Setback to Saint Leo in SSC Tournament

WINTER PARK - Florida Southern concluded its 2014 season here early Thursday afternoon with a 5-1 setback to fourth-ranked Saint Leo in the first round of the Sunshine State Conference Tournament at the Bert Martin Tennis Complex on the Rollins College campus.

With the setback, the 32nd-ranked Moccasins conclude the season with a 10-10 overall record, while Saint Leo improved to 18-4 and moves into Friday's semifinal match against top-seeded and No. 2 ranked Barry.

The Mocs, who is not listed in the top nine of the latest NCAA Division II South Regional rankings that was released on Wednesday, will miss out on the NCAA Tournament for just first time since the program was reinstated in 1996. The Mocs had qualified for 18 consecutive NCAA Tournaments prior to this season, but the NCAA dropped the number of qualifiers from the South Region to seven teams this year. Previously, the top nine teams from the South Region earned a spot in regionals, but based on sponsorship of the sport in the region, the South has lost two spots this season.  

In the SSC Championships, matches are halted after the clinching fifth point has been scored for a team.

On Thursday, the Mocs lone point came in doubles as its No. 1 team of seniors Benoit Paradis (Quebec City, Quebec) and Emanuel Lueber (Tiengen, Germany) defeated Bruno Sisti and Adjenak in a tiebreaker, 9-8 (11-9) to help prevent a doubles sweep by the Lions. The win by the Moccasin tandem improved their record to 11-9 on the season and they ended the season winning seven of their final 10 doubles matches.

The Lions took the other two doubles matches, but the Mocs made them work for the wins as seniors Nathan Leavitt (Bradenton, Fla.) and Vladimir Barabash (Puhovka, Ukraine) lost in a tiebreaker at the No. 2 spot, 9-8 (7-5) to Matt Nicholson-Lewis and Victor Lozier, while FSC's No. 3 team of juniors Carl Lundberg (Stocksund, Sweden) and Charles Garneau (L'ancienne-Lorette, Quebec) fell 8-3 to SLU's tandem of Ismail Lemtouni and Fons Verbane.

Meanwhile, in singles action, the Lions posted wins at the No. 1, 2 and 4 spots to earn its second win this season over the Mocs as the Lions collected a 6-3 win in the season opener at Saint Leo. At the No. 1 spot, Lueber fell in straight sets to 40th-ranked Adjenak (6-0, 6-4,), while Paradis suffered a straight set loss to Nicholson-Lewis (6-3, 7-5) at the No. 2 and Lozier posted a win at the No. 4 spot over Leavitt (7-5, 7-5).

The Lions had won the first set in the other three singles matches and were leading in the second set in two of matches, while the other singles matches was in a third set when Lozier wrapped up his win over Leavitt at the No. 4.

Lundberg and Lemtouni were locked into a third-set battle as each of them had split the first two sets as Lemtouni earned a 6-4 win in the first set, but Lundberg came back to earn a 6-1 win in the second set. In the third set, Lemtouni held a 5-3 lead when the match was stopped.

Thursday's match was the final one as a Moccssin for Barabash, Leavitt, Lueber, Lundberg, Paradis and Tony D'Angelo (Mendham, N.J.).

#4 Saint Leo 5, #32 Florida Southern 1
04/24/14 at Winter Park, Fla. (Martin Complex)