FGCU (11-4,3-0 A-SUN) just completed a three match road trip against Stetson University, the University of South Carolina Upstate and New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). They faced the Hatters in a 6-1 victory before finishing the road trip with a 6-1 victory over the Upstate and a 5-2 win against NJIT.
In doubles, the team of junior Juliana Curtis and sophomore Julia Ascúa suffered their first doubles loss in their two-year career against NJIT.
In singles competition, freshman Maja Ornberg, sophomore Laura Falceto Font and senior Breana Stampfli are 3-0 in conference.
Sophomore transfer Sofia Blanno (4-4, 0-1 conference) competed for the first time since the fall season, despite losing 6-1, 4-6, 10-8 in her first conference singles game.
Freshman Sofia Perez was unable to join the team.
FGCU have three shutout wins this season (FAMU, Georgia Southern and George Washington), and players to still look at are of course Ornberg, Falceto Font, Ascúa, and Stampfli.
Ornberg is 13-6 and the Kil, Sweden native has already been named A-SUN Player of the Week three times.
Falceto Font is 14-7 and the native from Zaragoza, Spain has been named A-SUN Player of the Week on the week of February 8th.
Ascúa is 12-8 in singles and the native of Santa Fe, Argentina was named Player of the Week in the third week of the season. Ascúa also holds a 17-8 doubles record with a majority of the wins with Curtis.
Stampfli is 16-9 in singles and the former A-SUN Women’s Tennis Freshman of the Year was the first A-Sun Player of the Week in the beginning of the season.
The Kenneesaw State Owls (5-11, 1-3 A-SUN) have lost four straight matches, three of which were conference (2-5 NJIT, 0-7 UNF, 2-5 Stetson).
Players to look at for KSU are junior Alexandra Mercado and freshman Jada Tijani.
A native of Caguas, Puerto Rico, Mercado is 12-13 in singles and 10-10 in doubles.
Tijani is 9-6 in singles and 6-10 in doubles.
Currently, the FGCU women's team is tied for first place with UNF in conference while KSU is tied for fifth with Lipscomb.
The FGCU men's tennis team (6-10, 2-2 A-SUN) had a few struggles this season. On the road, the men went 2-1 for conference. They beat Stetson 5-2 and Upstate 4-3 before falling 4-3 to NJIT.
Players to look at for FGCU are freshman Filippe "Pipe" Ramirez, senior Andres "Andy" Alfonzo and sophomores Javier Fernandez, Ezequiel Cerrini and Mateo Ruiz.
Since his debut with the team against Bethune-Cookman, Ramirez has taken FGCU men's tennis to a whole new level by going 7-3 in singles and 8-5 in doubles, and the native from Armenia, Colombia is supposedly called the "new face of FGCU men's tennis."
Alfonzo enters his last season as a member of the FGCU men's tennis team and despite going 3-12, the senior from Valencia, Venezuela made a statement during the matchup against Upstate by securing the game winner for match point.
Since joining the team last year, Cerrini and Fernandez took the courts by storm. Fernandez, the former A-SUN Freshman of the Year is 18-16 in singles, while Cerrini is 12-16.
Since his debut after transferring from Oklahoma State, Ruiz went 12-12 in singles and still moving strong.
Kennesaw (10-7, 2-2 A-SUN) has key players to look out for: senior Simon Pritchard and sophomore Fermin Calvo Barcelo.
Pritchard is currently 11-7 in singles and 8-4 in doubles.
Barcelo is 15-10 in singles and 10-7 in doubles.
Both the FGCU and KSU men's teams are tied for third place behind UNF.
Both men's and women's tennis start at 6 p.m. on Thursday, at the same time. Normally, I thought it would start with the women first and then the men later, so this is a mind blower for me.
All 12 courts will be used during the matches, and normally it starts with doubles and then singles, but the women did singles first and then doubles a couple of times in the season in case of inclement weather, so it is uncertain on whether both teams will do singles then doubles or the other way around and it is uncertain who will start on courts 1-12. I guess all four coaches will figure it out before the matches.
Both of FGCU's tennis team will wrap their seasons with another home conference doubleheader against Lipscomb (women at five, men at six) and on Saturday, the women will finish conference play in the season with a final match against UNF at three while the men finish with a final non-conference match against Memphis at 6.
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