ST. AUGUSTINE - Florida Southern continued its spring season here Friday afternoon by suffering a hard-fought 6-2 defeat at the hands of 26th-ranked Flagler College at the Flagler Tennis Center.
The Moccasins, who are ranked 34th in the Preseason ITA Tennis Division II Men's Poll, fell to 0-2 on the season with the setback, while Flagler improved to 2-2 on the season. Friday's match was the first of the season for the Mocs against a Division II team as FSC opened its spring schedule with a match on Feb. 1 at Division I foe, Stetson.
In Friday's match, the Mocs opened by taking one of the three double matches as freshman Arthur Viallaneix (Apopka, Fla.) and his partner, fellow classmate Blaine Miller (Orlando, Fla.) picked up an 8-2 win at the No. 3 spot of Flagler's No. 3 team of Willy Hasselberg and Justen Louis.
Flagler won the other two doubles matches by scores of 8-2 at the No. 1 spot and 8-4 at the No. 2 spot to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
In singles action, the Mocs picked up wins at the No. 4 and No. 6 spot, and fell in third-set tiebreaker at the No. 5 spot.
The team's lone returning player from last season, senior Charles Garneau (L'ancienne-Lorette, Quebec) picked up a win in a third set tiebreaker at the No. 4 spot as he defeated Flagler's Bruno Padilha. Garneau fell 6-3 in the first set, before collecting a 7-6 (7-3) win in the second set and then earned a 10-8 win in the third set tiebreaker.
At the No. 6 spot, freshman Brian Slivonik (Oyster Bay, N.Y.) earned a straight sets win over Flagler's John Bailey as Slivonik won 6-2, 6-4.
Freshman Derek Bell (Creve Coeur, Mo.) fell in that third-set tiebreaker as the No. 5 spot against Louis as Bell won the first set, 6-4, before losing the second set, 6-4 and then suffering a 10-7 setback in the third set tiebreaker.
Flagler's three other wins in came singles as the No. 1, 2 and 3 spots. At the No. 1 spot, 13th-ranked Jose Martinez defeated FSC sophomore Laurent Mailloux (Montreal, Quebec), 6-3, 6-3, while Brant Switzler defeated Viallaneix at the No. 2 spot (6-1, 6-1) and David Espinosa picked up a straight set victory at the No. 3 spot over sophomore Fabian Lundberg (Akersberga, Sweden) as Espinosa won, 6-2, 6-3.
The Mocs will return to action on Saturday, Feb. 14 as they travel to Daytona Beach for 10 a.m. match against NAIA's No. 1 ranked men's program, Embry-Riddle.
