No. 7 UWF men's tennis upset by No. 10 Rollins

WINTER PARK, Fla. – To kick off the spring break trip competition, the No. 7 West Florida men’s tennis team (2-2, 1-0 GSC) fell to No. 10 Rollins College (4-4) in Winter Park, Fla. by a 7-2 score. The match was played on Friday, March 5th at the Rollins campus. The Tars were stronger than the Argos, as they only dropped one match in both singles and doubles play.

The Argonauts were only able to capture a win on the No. 3 doubles, as junior Patrick Bateman (Apopka, Fla./Seminole CC) teamed with Nathan Rosenfeld (Miami, Fla./Miami International) to defeat Arturo Bavaralle and Girts Dzelde with an 8-4 score. The Tars took the lead by bouncing back on the first and second doubles. The No. 3 nationally ranked pair formed by sophomore Kevin Ducros (Aix-en-Provence, France) and freshman Leandro Ferreira (Sao Paulo, Brazil/Colegio Antonio Afonso) fell to Jeff Morris and Neil Clausen in an 8-6 match in the No. 1 spot. At No. 2 doubles, sophomore Andrey Pozhidaev (Sochi, Russia) and freshman Lukas Larsson (Ystad, Sweden/Osterportskolan) dropped an 8-6 match to Pablo Seijo and Nick Rowlands, giving the Tars the 2-1 lead entering the singles play.

In singles the Argonauts were only able to capture one of six matches. No. 14 Clausen from Rollins defeated Argonaut Ferreira 6-4, 6-1 in the No. 2 singles to give the 3-1 lead to the Tars. The Argonauts earned its point in singles when No. 43 Pozhidaev defeated Seijo with a 7-5, 7-5 score in the third singles. No. 12 Ducros dropped a 6-4, 7-5 match to Morris in the first singles. Bateman pushed Dzelde to a third set and fell with a 7-6, 1-6, 6-4 in the No. 5 singles, giving the Tars their fifth point to secure the team win. Sean Gunnels (Mobile, Ala./Murphy HS) dropped a one set lead and fell to his opponent in the third set at No. 6 singles. However, Gunnels fell 4-6, 7-6, 6-3 to Chris Herbert, giving the Tars the 6-2 lead. Rollins earned the final point in the No. 4 singles as Rosenfeld had to default from the match due to cramps when the score was 6-2, 6-7, 3-4 on serve against Baravalle.

With the loss, the West Florida men’s tennis team drops to a 2-2 overall record. The No. 7 Argonauts will next face No. 37 Florida Tech (2-6) on Sunday, March 7th at 12:00 pm ET. The match will be played at the Panthers campus in Melbourne, Fla. For information on all UWF Athletics, visit www.GoArgos.com