A-SUN Conference Tennis Tournament: Day Two

The days of both men's and women's tennis came to a close. There were four teams for both the men and women and it now comes down to two teams for both.

At noon, the women played first. No. 2 UNF played No. 3 NJIT and No. 1 FGCU played No. 4 Stetson.

In doubles, FGCU beat Stetson after wins by the duos by sophomore Juli Ascua and junior Julianna Curtis, who won 6-1 on court one and the freshman duo of Sara Kelly and Bridget Forster, who won 6-0 on court three. The team of senior Breana Stampfli and freshman Maja Ornberg, despite being down 1-5, did not finish their match.

Singles came later on, but there were some changes to the lineup for FGCU. Ornberg, who was originally scheduled to play No. 1 singles was unable to play singles due to sickness, so transitions were made to the lineup: Stampfli transitioned from No. 2 singles to No. 1 singles, Ascua went from No. 3 to No. 2 singles, Forster remained at No. 6 singles, sophomore Laura Falceto Font transitioned from No. 5 to No. 3 Singles, Kelly transitioned from No. 3 to No. 4 singles and Curtis entered at No. 5 singles.

Forster started off with 6-2, 6-0 straight set win over Alexe Viaud. After Kelly fell from a 6-2 pair decision to Sofia Ferding, Curtis came into play and won 6-0, 7-5 against Danielle Peele. Ascua secured the final point with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 win over Maja Salibasic and FGCU advanced to the finals. Stampfli and Falceto did not finish their matches due to the win.

"The girls came out focused and got the job done today," said FGCU head coach Courtney Vernon. "We're very thankful to be in our third conference championship. The big thing for us tomorrow is to come out with a lot of energy and hopefully have a lot of fans out here to support us. The crowd was great today, and the girls love playing in front of them. UNF is a solid team and is going to fight hard, but the girls are pumped and ready for tomorrow. They're hungry and want to write a different story."

It was found out that the FGCU will face UNF after they won 4-0 against NJIT, so it is a rematch between the two teams from last year.

On the men's side, they were originally scheduled to start at 5 P.M., but after finding out via Twitter that heavy rain hit and caused a weather delay, so the matchups were set for 10 P.M.

As I arrived back to the tennis courts after a four-hour nap, which I really needed, the matches did not start yet as all of the courts were still wet from the five-hour rain delay that occurred and brooms, mops, leaf blowers and fans were in use for drying the courts. Because the event staff had to dry the courts, which took over an hour and a half to do so, the matches officially started at 11:45 P.M.

No. 4 FGCU was set to face No. 1 UNF while No. 2 Stetson faced No. 6 Lipscomb.

After the courts were dried up, tennis went underway.

Sophomores Javier Fernandez and Mateo Ruiz finished first with a 6-2 win over sophomores Jonathan Deautriell and Sahil Deshmukh.

After junior Oliver Landert and freshman Felipe Ramirez fell 6-4 to senior Jack Findel-Hawkins and junior Jefta Kecic, it was up to one other doubles matchup between the two teams. Senior Andres Alfonzo and sophomore Ezequiel Cerrini beat junior Lasse Muscheites and sophomore Sahil Deshmukh 7-6 with a 7-4 tiebreaker.

Singles started afterwards. Courts 1-3 were completely dry, but courts 4-6 were still being dried during the singles matches on courts 1-3.

While courts 4-6 were being dried, Ruiz started off with 6-0, 6-2 win over Kecic to make it 2-0 for FGCU, but then the lead was cut to one after Findel-Hawkins beat Ramirez 6-1, 4-6, 6-3. UNF would then tie the matchup 2-2 after Landert lost 4-6, 6-4, 3-6 to senior Yannick Zuern. Cerrini would then fall to Muscheites 6-7, 3-6, making the score 3-2 in favor of UNF.

It was up to two players to tie and win for FGCU: Alfonzo and Fernandez. Fernandez was scheduled to play on court six, but due to the conditions of court six, he was moved to court two after Ruiz's game and was already up one set.

Meanwhile, Alfonzo battled in the third set. After Dropping the first set, Alfonzo battled hard and won the second set, forcing a third set against Deshmukh. Down 3-0 in the third set, Alfonzo didn't give up the fight as he miraculously came back with six straight game points to win his match 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 and tie the score at 3-3.

It all came down to Fernandez and Deautriell. Fernandez won the first set 6-2 and one final push, he finished the match with another 6-2 set and FGCU advanced to the final round of the conference tournament.

FGCU finished their matchup at 3:30 A.M. and thank goodness it was over. In all the tennis matches I've been to at FGCU, I never suspected that it would end at 3:30 A.M., and that was way past my bedtime.

"Words cannot describe what the guys did," said head coach CJ Weber. "It's been a really long season and we've dealt with so much adversity. The way we played today, is this team's potential and this is what we have been fighting for all year long. We have not been able to do it all season until today and it was just a commitment from every single one of the guys; I could not ask for anything more. UNF played an amazing match; I gained even more respect for them today. They competed like crazy and today was our absolute best and we barely won. Hats off to them on a great year and we look forward to many more tight matches with them in the future."

After FGCU's matchup, I found out that Lipscomb beat Stetson 4-2, so it will be No.4 FGCU taking on No. 6 Lipscomb in the finals. The matches will be shown on ESPN3 at 1 P.M. and to me will be described as the battle of Cinderellas in the A-SUN.