WINTER PARK, Fla. -- Barry University's men's tennis team discovered something this weekend: it can withstand the endurance test.
No. 3 Barry overcame a doubles deficit to beat No. 5 Armstrong, 5-4, in a five-and-a-half-hour match at Rollins College. The Buccaneers (4-0) trailed 2-1 after doubles -- two of which went to tiebreakers -- but gutted it out in singles to win the marathon.
Barry's No. 4-ranked
Ahmed Triki knocked off the No. 1 player in the country, beating Fernando Bojago, 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-5), at No. 1 singles in a signature win. No. 3
Fabian Groetsch also went toe-to-toe with Otakar Lucak before prevailing, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (10-8), at No. 2. Those two matches were a sign of what the morning and afternoon were like for the Bucs, who have a deep history with Armstrong on the courts.
Groetsch and Triki combined to pull out a 9-8 (7-2) win over Bogajo and Lucak at No. 1 doubles.
"Really nice for us," Groetsch said. "There were a lot of close matches, and we had the better happy ending with two third-set tiebreakers."
Armstrong's No. 2 pair of Pablo Gor and Ignacio Hernandez were 8-5 winners over
Kevin Sielmann and
Renato Lombardi. Marek Pesicka and Jan Porteset gave the Pirates a 2-1 lead after pairs play when they won the No. 3 battle over Barry's
Dominik Haider and
Franco Echenique, 9-8 (7-4).
Fourteenth-ranked Gor beat No. 26
Nico Dreer, 7-6 (8-6), 5-7, 6-2, at the No. 3 singles flight. But Sielmann, ranked 48th in the nation, authored a convincing 6-0, 6-3 victory over Luca Cerin at No. 4. Hernandez, ranked 18th but slotted at No. 5 singles, was a 6-4, 6-1 winner over Haider. Lombardi beat Damian Okrutny, 6-3, 7-5, at No. 6.
"Two great teams played today against each other, with a happy ending for us," Groetsch said. "We have to keep working, but also we can be proud to win such a close match."
Box Score
