Florida Southern Prevails Over Men's Tennis, 8-1

3/22/2016 12:00:00 AM

LAKELAND, Fla. – The Merrimack College men's tennis team played at the Warden Tennis Center on Tuesday afternoon, losing to the Florida Southern Mocs, 8-1

The Basics
Score: Florida Southern 8, Merrimack 1
Records: Merrimack (3-5) | Florida Southern (10-5)
Location: Warden Tennis Center | Lakeland, Fla.

How It Happened
Merrimack switched up its doubles pairs again on Tuesday, with senior captain Miguel Belfort (Caracas, Venezuela) playing up at No. 2 with Frank Vega (Lima, Peru), and Tyler Clontz (Naples, Fla.) joining Mikhail Belov (Krasnoarmeyskoy, Russia) at third doubles.

Junior captain Nick Majewski (Brewster, Mass.) and Laurence Akwei (Johannesburg, South Africa) trotted out a No. 1, dropping an 8-3 match. Vega and Belfort brought their contest to a 16^th game before the opposition pulled out a 9-7 victory. Belov and Clontz played together for the first time this season, winning five games in an 8-5 defeat.

Merrimack's singles lineup remained the same, with freshman Alex Slobin (Fairfield, Conn.) joining the group at sixth singles. Vega pulled out a straight-set victory at third singles, winning his first set, 7-5, before not dropping a game in his second. 

Other than that, Akwei came the closest to winning a set, taking his second frame to a tiebreak. Belov and Vega each saw a set go to a 12^th game, but neither were able to send each respective set to a tiebreak scenario.

Results
Doubles
1. Jose de Sario / Brian Slivonik (FSC) def. Nick Majewski / Laurence Akwei (MER) 8-3
2. Fabian Lundberg / Arthur Viallaneix (FSC) def. Frank Vega  / Miguel Belfort (MER) 9-7
3. Matt Matsuyama / Brian Wilson (FSC) def. Mikhail Belov / Tyler Clontz (MER) 8-5

Singles
1. Fabian Lundberg (FSC) def. Mikhail Belov (MER) 6-2, 7-5
2. Brian Slivonik (FSC) def. Nick Majewski (MER) 6-3, 6-3
3. Frank Vega (MER) def. Miguel Alvarez-Hevia  (FSC) 7-5, 6-0
4. Arthur Viallaneix (FSC) def. Miguel Belfort (MER) 6-4, 6-4
5. Oscar Soderlund (FSC) def. Laurence Akwei (MER) 6-4, 7-6 (3)
6. Matt Matsuyama (FSC) def.  Alex Slobin (MER) 6-4, 6-4

Up Next
Merrimack wraps up its Florida trip with a match tomorrow afternoon against Florida Tech. The Panthers are the ninth-ranked program in the South Region of the latest Oracle/ITA Division II Rankings.

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