PENSACOLA – Playing its second match of the day against an ITA top-10 opponent, Florida Southern dropped a 9-0 decision to 10th-ranked Valdosta State on Saturday night. The match, which was played at the University of West Florida, was originally scheduled for Sunday morning but with courts available on Saturday, the teams agreed to play earlier.
The Blazers (10-3) got an 8-2 win from their nationally-ranked No. 2 doubles team of Gereon Heitmann and Ramon Weill to help get the match underway before going on to win all six singles matches in straight sets. Of those six, freshmen Derek Bell (Creve Coeur, Mo.) and Blaine Miller (Orlando, Fla.) won the most games, taking six apiece at the No. 5 and No. 4 positions respectively.
Bell took Ramon Weill out to 7-5 in his first set before falling 6-1 in the second. Meanwhile, Miller also lost by just two games in his first set, 6-4, before suffering a 6-2 setback in the second. At the No. 1 singles position, sophomore Fabian Lundberg (Akersberga, Sweden) also lost his opening set by the same 6-4 score against 19th-ranked Leo Blay before Blay closed that one out in two sets as well.
Earlier in the day, the Moccasins (4-10) had suffered a similar fate to #2 West Florida on what turned out to be their final day of competition in a South Region crossover of sorts hosted by the Argonauts. The Moccasins had already split two matches on Friday against two other schools from the Gulf South Conference.
Florida Southern will now return home to take on #9 Lynn on Tuesday, April 7 at 3 p.m.
