May 8, 2008

PENSACOLA, Fla. - The West Florida Men's tennis team downed GSC West opponent, Harding, by a score of 5-0, in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. The Argos will play round two against another GSC West opponent, Ouachita Baptist, on Friday at the Ralph "Skeeter" Carson tennis complex on the UWF campus, beginning at noon. UWF opened Thursday's match by sweeping the doubles matches, then put away the Bison with three singles wins.

At number one doubles, Eduardo Cavasotti and Luis Arboleda defeated the Harding duo of Marco Ruiz and Ethan Bryant by a score of 8-6, while number two doubles tandem of Nicolas Barrientos and Patrick Bateman dropped Chris Beach and Olzhas Taniyev by an 8-0 score. Barrientos and Bateman improved their doubles record on the year to an impressive 22-2. At the number three doubles, Diego Zorzi and Luiz Bernardi cruised to an 8-2 win, which gave the Argos a 3-0 lead following doubles.

The Argos didn't need number one singles player, Eduardo Cavasotti, to complete the win. Luis Arboleda, Patrick Bateman, and Jose Ycaza each won their singles matches, and the contest ended at 5-0, with victory for the Argos. Arboleda defeated Chris Beach at number three singles, by a 6-1, 6-1 score. Then number five singles, Patrick Bateman and number six singles, Jose Ycaza both completed wins at the same time. Bateman improved his singles record to 13-0, with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Richard Rios, while Ycaza defeated Enrique Mendoza by a 6-0, 6-1 score. The two matches gave the Argos at least five wins, and the match ends as a 5-0 team score.

The win improved the #3 Argos to 21-4 on the season, and sets up a match against Ouachita Baptist on Friday for the right to go to Houston for the NCAA finals. Ouachita Baptist defeated 6th seeded Tuskegee by a 5-0 score to set up the regional final between two Gulf South Conference schools. UWF defeated Ouachita Baptist in their regular season match by a 5-4 score.

In the match on April 3rd, the Argos had to come from behind to earn the win. OBU led 2-1 after doubles, and went up 4-2 with three singles matches remaining. West Florida stepped up under pressure and pulled out the remaining singles matches to win 5-4. Patrick Bateman and Nicolas Barrientos both rallied from one set down to win in three sets, and then Luiz Bernardi capped the victory by pulling out the number four singles match by a 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 score.

West Florida is the 2nd seed, while Ouachita Baptist is the 3rd seed. Meanwhile, Valdosta State is the number one seed in the south region, but that half of the bracket is played separate, and thus two teams from the south bracket with enter the NCAA finals, to be played in Houston, Texas, beginning on May 14th, as part of the NCAA Division II spring sports festival.

Match Results:

#2 West Florida defeats #7 Harding 5-0

#1 Doubles: Cavasotti & Arboleda (UWF) defeated Ruiz & Bryant (HU) 8-6

#2 Doubles: Barrientos & Bateman (UWF) defeated Beach & Taniyev (HU) 8-0

#3 Doubles: Zorzi & Bernardi (UWF) defeated Hoch & Rios (HU) 8-2

#1 Singles: Nicolas Barrientos (UWF) vs. Olzhas Taniyev (HU)

#2 Singles: Diego Zorzi (UWF) vs. Marco Ruiz (HU)

#3 Singles: Luis Arboleda (UWF) defeated Chris Beach (HU) 6-1, 6-1

#4 Singles: Luiz Bernardi (UWF) vs. Ethan Bryant (HU)

#5 Singles: Patrick Bateman (UWF) defeated Richard Rios (HU) 6-3, 6-2

#6 Singles: Jose Ycaza (UWF) defeated Enrique Mendoza (HU) 6-0, 6-1