LAKELAND – Saint Leo survived three close doubles matches, two of them decided by tie-breakers, to jump out to a 3-0 lead Wednesday, before winning all but one set in singles play as the 14th-ranked Lions defeated #34 Florida Southern 9-0 in the Moccasins' first Sunshine State Conference match of the year.
Saint Leo (4-1, 2-0) took all three points in doubles, put the top two flights were both decided by 9-8 scores. At No. 1, Alex Theiler and Bruno Sisti won their tie-breaker over Fabian Lundberg and Laurent Mailloux 7-3, and Netanel Alcabas and Egor Panyushkin had to go out to 7-5 to defeat Arthur Viallaneix and Charles Garneau at No. 2.
The Lions could have easily been down 3-0 at that point, but armed with a 3-0 lead instead, they swept through singles play to take the match by shutout. The best singles match of the day occurred at the No. 2 position where Lundberg and Alcabas went back and forth in the first set before Alcabas came from behind for a 6-4 win, and Lundberg took the second set 6-2. Alcabas then had to come from behind again to win the super tie-breaker.
Florida Southern will play its next match next Wednesday in Winter Parker at Rollins College beginning at 3 p.m.
