MELBOURNE - Florida Southern concluded the regular season here Sunday afternoon at Fee Avenue Park by suffering a hard-fought 5-4 setback to 44th-ranked Florida Tech.
With the setback, the Moccasins conclude the regular season with a 6-15 overall record and a 2-6 mark in the SSC. Florida Tech finished with a 14-9 overall mark and a 3-5 record in the SSC.
In Sunday's match, which was originally scheduled for Friday, but pushed back two days due to weather, the Mocs opened by going 1-2 in doubles as its No. 2 team of freshman Nina Vucevic (Beausoleil, France) and junior Miroslava Mensikova (Hranice, Czech Republic) picked up an 8-5 win over Tech's No. 2 team of Kayla Hergott and Erin Egoroff. With the win, Mensikova and Vucevic improved their record to 7-3 overall on the season, including a 7-1 mark at the No. 2 spot.
The Panthers, who were playing their final home match of the season, would win the other two doubles matches by scores of 9-7 at the No. 1 spot and 8-2 at the No. 3 spot.
Meanwhile, in singles action, the Mocs picked up three wins, but Tech was able to seal the match victory by posting three wins in singles, including capping the win with a 6-2, 6-3 win at the No. 2 spot as Hergott defeated Moccasin senior Olivia Spagnuolo (Andover, Mass.), 6-2, 6-3.
FSC's wins in singles came at the No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 spots in the line-up. At the No. 3 spot, Vucevic picked up a 6-0, 7-5 win over Chloe Chanley, while Mensikova earned a three-set win (3-6, 6-4, 6-0) at the No. 4 spot over Egoroff and freshman Katie Taylor-Doran (Brisbane, Australia) earned a three-set win over Mariana Castaneiras, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6.
With her win, Vucuvic improved to 5-5 on the season, including going 5-2 at the No. 3 singles spot, while Mensikova improved to 6-5 on the season, including 3-0 at the No. 4 singles spot.
At the No. 1 spot, senior Magda Riutort (Petra, Spain) was forced to retire in the third set due to injury after splitting the first two matches against Natasa Vukovic. Vukovic won the first set, 6-1, but Riutort picked up a 6-2 win in the second set. Vukovic led 1-0 when Riutort was forced to retire.
Florida Tech's other singles win came at the No. 6 spot as Jessica Widmark picked up a straight set (6-4, 6-1) victory over Moccasin freshman Katie Stanford (Lake Worth, Fla.).
