MIAMI SHORES, Fla. – Two of the nation's top teams squared off Saturday morning as the No. 10 Flagler College men's tennis team fell 4-3 to No. 2 Barry University at the Buccaneer Tennis Center.
Flagler suffers its first defeat since March 3
rd, falling to 8-4. The defending national champion Bucs improved to 13-4.
The opening doubles matches showed why these teams are some of the best. Flagler won the first match to finish, with
Nikita Tatyanin and
Jagger Ong-Patzwald continuing their strong play at second doubles, winning 6-4 for the duo's sixth consecutive win. Barry tied it up at first singles, following a 6-3 win.
It all came down to third doubles for the pivotal opening point, which featured
Petr Cervinka and
Cedric Holzmann for Flagler, and Barry's Hugo Cazaban and Vlad Popescu. The match went the distance but the Bucs' duo outlasted the Saints, winning 6-7, 7-3 in the breaker.
In singles play, Barry won the first two matches to finish, giving them a 3-0 lead. Cervinka fell at third singles 6-7 (3), 2-6, while No. 61
Philipp Lemken lost a hard-fought match at fourth, 5-7, 5-7.
Del Granado brought the match to 3-1 with his first win against a nationally-ranked opponent at Flagler, winning 7-5, 6-4 against No. 75 Ignasi Forcano at first singles.
The Bucs clinched the match at 4-1 following a three-set battle at second singles. Tatyanin dropped the first set to Barry's Arnru Rodriguez, 5-7. He came out firing on all cylinders in the second, winning 6-0. Rodriguez pulled away in the decisive set, winning 2-6 to clinch the match for the Bucs.
Flagler won the final two matches of the day, Holzmann posted a 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 victory on court five, while
Jacopo Denitto earned a win at sixth singles with a 6-4, 6-3 win.
The Saints look to bounce back tomorrow at No. 32 Palm Beach Atlantic University, beginning at 11 a.m.
Be the first to know what's going on with the Saints -- Follow @FlaglerSports on Twitter, follow FlaglerSports on Instagram, become a fan of Flagler College Athletics on Facebook and subscribe to the Flagler College Athletics e-newsletter to receive the latest news, schedule updates and to interact with Flagler Athletics.
