Men's Tennis Suffers First Home Loss

MIAMI SHORES, Fla. -- So went the ebb and flow of a key South Region match.

Up and down. Back and forth. In the end, No. 7 West Florida pulled out a 5-4 win over No. 2 Barry Monday at Buccaneer Tennis Center.

It was a match in which two doubles matches needed tiebreakers and four singles went three sets.

"Tough loss," Bucs assistant coach Thomas Hipp said.

Barry (12-2) suffered its first home loss of the season. It was also the Buccaneers first region loss this year.

Barry's Marco Mokrzycki and Leo Vivas battled Andrey Pozhidaev and  Leandro Ferreira to 9-8 (7-2) win at No. 2 doubles. Buccaneers teammates Ollie Lemaitre and Daniel Schmidt pulled out a 9-8 (7-4) win over Mike Lue and Domenico Sano at the No. 3 pairs flight.

Lemaitre won his No. 6 singles match in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3, over Sean Gunnels. But 10th-ranked Bruno Savi beat Barry's Fabian Groetsch, 6-2, 6-2, at No. 2 singles. That left the Bucs in front in the match, 3-2.

But that's when it got interesting.

Schmidt overcame a first-set loss to beat Ferreira, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, giving the Bucs a 4-2 lead.

Mokrzycki pushed Kevin Ducros to a third set with a 6-4 win in the second after dropping the first, 7-6 (7-4). Ducros won the final set, 6-4. That pulled the Argos (9-1) within one, 4-3.

Costamagna and 19th-ranked Pozhidaev battled back and forth in the Argos' 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 win to even the match at four points apiece.

All sights turned to the No. 5 singles match. West Florida's Elio Latela took the first set from Vivas, 6-2. Vivas responded with a 7-6 (7-1) win in the second set to even the match. A heated third set filled with tension wavered back and forth before Latela pulled out a 6-4 win to give the Argos the victory.

It was Barry's first loss since falling to North Florida on Feb. 10.

The Buccaneers will host Ouachita Baptist on Thursday in Miami Shores.

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