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Men's Tennis wins 2015 SSC Tourney title
Jamie Carrig
Barry men's tennis won its 12th Sunshine State Conference Tournament title, beating Lynn in the finals.
4
Lynn LYNNM (16-4)
5
Winner Barry BARRY-M (21-0)
Lynn LYNNM
(16-4)
4
Final
5
Barry BARRY-M
(21-0)
Winner

Match Recap: Men's Tennis | | Jim McCurdy

Men's Tennis Wins SSC Tournament for 12th Time, Beating Lynn in Thriller

Bucs hold off Fighting Knights as Sielmann clinches


Box Score

SAINT LEO, Fla. -- Barry University men's tennis will take it, but boy was it ever a scary way to win.

Third-ranked Barry held on for a 5-4 victory over ninth-ranked Lynn in the Sunshine State Conference Championships finals Saturday to capture its fifth straight league tournament title. It was the Buccaneers 12th overall tournament championship.

Leading Lynn, 4-0, Barry (21-0) appeared to be on cruise control when the Fighting Knights (16-4) put the ultimate scare into the Buccaneer faithful. After Barry's Nico Dreer beat Pavel Mojha, 6-1, 6-0, at No. 3 singles to move the Bucs within a win of clinching, the Fighting Knights rattled off four straight singles wins -- all in three sets -- to tie the match at 4-4.

Lynn's Paolo Volpicelli shook off an opening-set loss to beat Fabian Pronnet, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, at No. 5 singles for the first win. Forty-seventh-ranked Fernando Rivas also rallied, beating Barry's Dominik Haider, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4, at No. 2 to cut the Bucs lead to 4-2. Daniel Riggs came back after being blanked in the first set to beat Barry's Fabian Groetsch, 0-6, 6-2, 6-3, at the top spot. Lynn's Alessio Iannozzi held off Renato Lombardi, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, at No. 6 to square the match up at four wins apiece.

It all came to down to No. 4 singles, where Barry's Kevin Sielmann, who recently returned after spending a month on the sidelines with an injury, had everything riding on his shoulders. But the senior from Barcelona, Spain delivered, beating Mehdi Laalej, 6-2, 7-5, to clinch the title. 

"Kevin, I knew could do the job," Bucs coach George Samuel said. "The only thing I was a little concerned with was our fitness level because he's been out from the practice courts and hardly playing any matches for the last five weeks. And only over the last week-and-a-half has he come back to action. But we needed him today, and we were counting on him, and he delivered. I'm very happy for him."

Barry won all three doubles matches, but even a couple of those were close calls. Lombardi and Franco Echenique coasted to an 8-2 win over Volpicelli and Rivas at the No. 3 position. Then it got interesting.

Sielmann and Haider trailed in their No. 2 doubles match with Riggs and Iannozzi before coming back to win, 8-6. Eighth-ranked Ahmed Triki, who did not play singles for the second straight day due to illness, and Groetsch endured a battle with Mojha and Laalej before prevailing 9-8 (7-2) at No. 1.

With the win, the Bucs secured their 21st trip to the NCAA Division II Tournament, and are expected to host a South Regional next weekend at Buccaneer Tennnis Center. Barry will learn for sure Tuesday night at 8:30 p.m. when the NCAA announces the field during the Selection Show on www.ncaa.com. The Bucs will host a viewing party Tuesday night in Bucky's Cove on campus. All fans are welcome.



 
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