Winter Park, Fla. – Lynn University's eighth-ranked men's tennis team lost in the finals of the 2014 Sunshine State Conference Tournament, 5-2, to second-ranked Barry on Saturday afternoon. With the defeat Lynn's falls to 15-6 as the Fighting Knights await the NCAA Division II Tournament selections.
"Barry has a tremendous team, we fought hard and I'm proud of the effort we put in today," said Head Coach Mike Perez. In his 25 seasons at the helm of both the men's and women's program at Lynn, Perez has won the conference crown 14 different times.
There were no easy matches in doubles play, with all three matches being decided by two games. In the second slot Vlad Cirla and Pavel Mojha reversed the script on Leo Vivas and Romain Costamagna, who defeated Lynn in the regular season matchup, with an 8-6 score to give The Fighting Knights it's only lead of the afternoon. Renato Lombardi and Fabian Groetsch gave Tomas Porkop and Alessio Iannozzi their first loss as a duo this season, in a 9-7 decision to knot the score 1-all. Doubles play concluded with Daniel Riggs and Paolo Volpoceli falling to the third-ranked doubles team of Ollie Lemaitre and Ahmed Triki, 9-7.
Singles play went in favor of Barry (21-2) who won three of the first four matches to end the contest. Iannozzi was the first Fighting Knight to finish when he fell 6-1, 6-2 to Lambardi. However Lynn closed the gap when 37th-ranked Prokop was able to bring the Blue & White within one point with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Costamagna.
17th ranked Vlad Cirla went toe-to-toe with eighth-ranked Triki in the first set on the main court losing a tiebreaker 7-5 before falling 6-2 in the second set to put Barry one win away from the victory. The afternoon ended with Volpicelli fighting back versus Vivas in a three-set affair, losing 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.
"We learned a lot today," Perez added. "Now we have to take what we learned and apply it to our practices leading up to the NCAA Tournament."
Fans can log on to Lynnfightingknights.com to find out the fate of Lynn's men's tennis program in the NCAA Division II Tournament. Don't forget to 'Like' us on Facebook and follow @LUKnights on Twitter and Instagram for in-match updates throughout the postseason.
