WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The No. 15/three-seed Florida Southern College men's tennis team advanced to the Sunshine State Conference Championship after a 4-3 upset of No. on Saturday morning at the Mitch Gornto Tennis Center.
The Moccasins (17-7, 4-3 SSC) snapped a 20-match losing streak against the Lions, outlasting SLU in singles after winning the doubles point. The Lions (18-7, 6-1 SSC) suffered their first loss to FSC since March 30, 2011, with a 5-4 Moccasin victory in Lakeland. Florida Southern advances to the conference championship match for the first time since 2002, when the Mocs, the last time FSC won the SSC tournament title.
Not only did the Mocs upset the top 10 Lions in today's semifinal, but
Mario Garoz won his 21
st singles match of 2025, setting a new program record for wins in a single season. Garoz broke the 27-year record set by Patrick Ney, who went 20-3 in 1998.
The match opened with a big doubles competition as the No. 41 pairing of
Chris Fok Kow and Garoz upset the No. 3 pairing of Cohen/Iriarte 6-2.
Bosko Boskovic and
George Russell lost at the #2 court 6-4, leaving the doubles point to the #3 court of
Sam Frizelle and
Matthew Hewitt. The duo outlasted Kato/Segovia 6-4 to win that point, a strong start to the rest of the match.
Saint Leo opened singles with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Boskovic at the #6 court, but Garoz won 6-3, 6-3 for his 21
st win of the season to break the program record. Frizelle had a tough match against No. 12 Vincent Thiel, losing in the third set. Iriarte beat Hewitt in three sets, with just two courts remaining, and a tough task for the Mocs.
Fok Kow finished next at the #2 court, winning his first set 6-4, dropping the second 2-6, and rallying to win the third set 6-4 at tie the team scores, 3-3. The match was again left up to Russell, who clinched yesterday's quarterfinal win over Lynn. Russell dropped his first set but outlasted Kodai Kato in the second, 7-5, and dominated the tiebreak of the third set 7-6 (7-1) to again clinch the match.
The Mocs advance to the SSC Championship against No. 3/one-seed Barry University tomorrow, April 26, set for a 9 a.m. start at the Mitch Gornto Tennis Center.
