LAKELAND – Florida Southern was on the board early Tuesday afternoon with a win from its top doubles team of seniors Magda Riutort and Olivia Spagnuolo, but after Rollins won a long match at No. 3 doubles, the 9th-ranked Tars went on for a singles sweep to defeat the 45th-ranked Moccasins 8-1.
The Moccasins and Tars split the first two doubles points, with Riutort (Petra, Spain) and Spagnuolo (Andover, Mass.), who are now ranked 7th in the South Region as a pair, defeating Carli Davis and Johanna Olsson, 8-4. The Tars, however, went ahead 2-1 in the match after Zoe Monge and Emma Wookey out-lasted freshmen Katie Stanford (Lake Worth, Fla.) and Katie Taylor-Doran (Brisbane, Australia). Their 8-6 victory took a little over an hour and 15 minutes to complete.
Rollins (4-8, 1-0 Sunshine State Conference) took the first singles point as Shannon Etten defeated Riutort 6-0, 6-1 in a matchup of the #11 and #12 players in the region. The Tars also got a 6-0 win from Monge in the first set at No. 6 singles, while three of the other Moccasins on the court were locked in 3-2 battles with their opponents.
The Tars eventually won all of those sets, however, though it took a tie-breaker for Fabiana Vitanza to overcome Taylor-Doran at No. 4. Theirs was also the last match to be finished, though Spagnuolo was forced to retire early in hers while still in the middle of the second set.
Florida Southern will now embark on a 4-match road trip this weekend in Pensacola where the Moccasins will play twice on Friday, once on Saturday and once on Sunday. On Friday, the Mocs will take on Alabama-Huntsville at 9 a.m. Central Time, and Christian Brothers (TN) at 4 p.m. Central Time.
