AVE MARIA, Fla. — It took a little bit longer than expected, but the Ave Maria Men's Tennis team won their home finale, beating the Warner Royals 4-3. The match started Saturday, March 29, but was postponed due to rain making the courts unplayable. The match resumed Tuesday, April 1, with the Gyrenes getting the final two points they needed to get the win.
The doubles round need all three sets to decide the point to start the match. Warner won the first set to finish, but it was followed by two straight wins from the Gyrenes. Juan Garcia and Pedro Garcia evened up the round with a 6-4 win in the third pairing and Anderson Duggan and Joao Felipe Almeida clinched the doubles point for Ave Maria with a 7-5 win.
In the singles round, Warner won the first pairing to finish to tie the game at one.
Juan Garcia was the next to finish with a 6-1, 7-5 win in the fourth spot. Garcia is 6-2 overall this season in singles matches and 5-2 in the fourth pairing.
Warner won the next singles pairing to finish, tying the game at two points apiece.
Before the final three singles pairings could end, a rainstorm rolled into Ave Maria and ended play on Saturday. It was the first match this season for the Gyrenes to be affected by weather. The two teams agreed to resume play Tuesday afternoon back at the Ave Maria Tennis Courts.
When play picked back up, Almeida quickly put the Gyrenes back on top as closed out his third set to win. The sophomore from Brazil won 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 for the third point of the match.
Warner kept hanging on though as they won the fifth pairing to again the tie the match. This left just the top players from each team to decide the match.
Duggan dropped the first set 7-6 but quickly evened up the pairing with a 6-1 win in the second set. When he and the Royal picked up on Tuesday, it was a back-and-forth final set, but Duggan won the last three games of the set to win 6-4 and clinch the match for the Gyrenes.
With the win, Ave Maria improves to 6-6 overall and 2-3 in conference play. The Gyrenes are now tied with the Coastal Georgia Mariners for fifth place in the Sun Conference standings, but the Mariners hold the tiebreaker having won earlier in the season. Ave Maria hasn't clinched their spot yet in the Sun Conference tournament but can do so in the final two matches of the season with either a win over St. Thomas.
Both final two matches for Ave Maria are on the road. First the Gyrenes travel to West Palm Beach to take fourth ranked Keiser Seahawks Friday, April 11, and then travel down south to Miami Gardens to take on the St. Thomas Bobcats Saturday, April 12.
