Box Score MIAMI SHORES, Fla. -- Barry University men's tennis team fell 5-4 to Valdosta State Monday in the NCAA South Region 2 Championship at Buccaneer Tennis Center.

The loss ended the seventh-ranked Buccaneers' season at 14-7. Eighth-ranked Valdosta State (17-6) moves on to the NCAA Championships in Denver. Barry had advanced to the past three NCAA Championships, winning two national titles during that span in 2013 and 2015.

The second-seeded Bucs got out to a 2-1 lead in winning two of the three doubles matches. Barry's sixth-ranked Ahmed Triki and Renato Lombardi took a 4-2 lead over Niklas Herbring and Jordi Mas at No. 1 doubles when Triki fired off an ace and then hit an inside-out forehand winner down the line. After the Bucs broke the Blazers on the ensuing serve, Lombardi held serve to give Barry a 6-2 lead before Valdosta State held serve as well. Nursing a three-game lead, Triki's first serve after the break sent Herbring lunging, and Lombardi slammed down the return for a winner. Triki ripped off an ace and Lombardi won a point after attacking the net to push the Bucs to a 7-3 lead. The Blazers took the next game, but Lombardi served for the win as Barry put the first point on the board with an 8-4 victory.

At No. 3 pairs, Nico Dreer and Franco Echenique also got out to a 4-2 lead on Gereon Heitmann and Fernado Rivas when Dreer blasted down a ball while on serve. Echenique held serve two games later to push the Bucs ahead 5-3. Echenique used a beautiful volley at the net to bump the Buccaneers up, 6-4. But Valdosta State won the next three games to take control, 7-6. Dreer's serve forced two Blazers errors en route to knotting the match at 7-7. The Bucs broke the Blazers on the following serve to push Barry back on top by a game. With Echenique serving, Dreer hit a drop shot, and the Blazers committed two unforced errors to give Barry a 9-7 win and a 2-0 lead in the match.

At the No. 2 position, Barry's Flavio Matteoli and Fabian Pronnet fell behind early in their match with Leo Blay and Xavier Pineda, but Matteoli served the Bucs back to a 4-4 tie. After the Blazers held, Matteoli slammed down three winners on Pronnet's serve to square things up at 5-5. Both teams traded games over the next three serves before the Blazers eventually held on to win, 8-6.

All six singles matches went to three sets in what became a momentum-shifting afternoon. Valdosta State tied the match at 2-2 with a win at No. 2 singles. But Lombardi bounced back after dropping the second set and trailing 2-1 in the third to break Mas, winning two straight games for a 3-2 lead. After both of them held serve, Lombardi won two of the last three games to pull out a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 victory at No. 4 singles. That gave the Buccaneers a 3-2 lead.

VSU got a point back at No. 5 singles to tie things up again before third-ranked Triki swung the tide back into the Bucs' corner. After dropping the first set, 6-3, to eighth-ranked Blay at No. 1 singles, Triki fell behind 4-2 in the second set. But the Bucs junior from Tunisia broke Blay after the exchange and then held serve to tie the set at 4-4. Triki broke Blay a second time to take a 5-4 lead. Triki hit two spectacular drop shots from the baseline before Blay took the next point. Following an ace and an error by Blay on the next two serves, Triki hit an inside-out winner down the line and then fired up an ace to take the second set, 6-4. Triki broke Blay to start the third set and coasted the rest of the way, closing out the third set, 6-2. That put the Bucs up, 4-3.

But the Blazers pulled out third-set victories at the Nos. 3 and 6 positions to prevail. It was the second match between the two teams this year decided in 5-4 verdicts at Buccaneer Tennis Center. Barry won the first won in February. 

Triki finished the season with a 15-0 record, marking the second straight year he's went unbeaten with the same record. He is the only player in school history to win 15 matches without losing.

Lombardi capped his career with a 10-4 record for a second straight season. He won 10 or more matches in each of his four seasons at Barry.    


BOX SCORE