April 22, 2007

ARKADELPHIA, Ark. - Playing without Gulf South Conference Player of the Year Diego Zorzi (Buenos Aires, Argentina), top-ranked West Florida fell short in their quest for a three-peat at the Carpet One/GSC Championships. Fifth-ranked Valdosta State (13-5) defeated West Florida (23-3), 5-2 to claim their sixth GSC Championship.

Valdosta State avenged a regular season loss in February to the Argonauts. West Florida also won the previous two conference titles with wins in the championship match over Valdosta State.

Valdosta State opened the match by winning two of the three doubles matches. It was the first time this season that West Florida had failed to win at least two doubles matches. Dante Bottini (Buenos Aires, Argentina) won for the Argonauts in the first position, but Valdosta State was victorious in singles in the third, fourth and sixth positions to claim the championship title.

West Florida will advance to the NCAA Division II South Region Tournament on May 3-4. The Argonauts are currently ranked first in the south region and are expected to host one of two tournaments in the south region. Seedings will be announced on Wednesday.

RESULTS

#1 Singles: #6 Dante Bottini (UWF) def. Michael Andreo (VSU), 6-3, 6-1
#2 Singles: #38 Nicolas Barrientos (UWF) vs. Joerg Ekkenga (VSU), unfinished
#3 Singles: Thomas Provost (VSU) def. Eduardo Cavasotti (UWF), 4-6, 6-0, 6-2
#4 Singles: Leos Jelinek (VSU) def. Luis Arboleda (UWF), 6-4, 6-3
#5 Singles: Luiz Bernardi (UWF) vs. Benjamin Cattan (VSU), unfinished
#6 Singles: Nikolas Overkemping (VSU) def. Mark McGuigan (UWF), 7-5, 6-4

#1 Doubles: D. Bottini/N. Barrientos (UWF) def. Dominik Hansen/L. Jelinek (VSU), 8-3
#2 Doubles: J. Ekkenga/N. Overkemping (VSU) def. E. Cavasotti/L. Bernardi (VSU), 8-5
#3 Doubles: M. Andreo/T. Provost (VSU) def. L. Arboleda/Vivian Chhetri (UWF), 8-6