MOBILE, Ala. – Despite having a match postponed on the first day of the trip and the threat of rain hanging over their heads, the St. Mary's Men's Tennis team took care of business on Thursday afternoon, defeating Spring Hill 5-2 to improve to 10-0 on the season.
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The Rattlers were in Mobile, Alabama for the first-time ever, facing off with Spring Hill at the Copeland-Cox Tennis Center before heading to Pensacola, Florida for a trio of matches.
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The match was hard fought, as all three doubles teams won by the smallest of margins at 6-4 for the 1-0 Rattlers lead.
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The bottom three ladder positions all won in straight sets for the Gold & Blue, as sophomore
Oskar Irdoja (Talinn, Estonia) won 6-3, 6-0 at No. 4, sophomore
Nicolas Llosa (Lima, Peru) won 6-1, 6-1 at No. 5 and freshman
Alvaro Soler (Alicante, Spain) flipped Irdoja's set scores for the 6-0, 6-3 victory at No. 6.
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The first three flights all needed a 10-point tiebreaker set to determine the champion. Spring Hill won at No. 1 and No. 2, while freshman
Niklas Knoerr (Tübingen, Germany) came back to win after losing a first-set tiebreaker 7-6 (5) with sets of 6-2 and 10-6.
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Sophomore
Jake Faryniarz (San Antonio) lost 6-2 in the first set but bounced back with a late break to knot the match at 1-1 after winning 7-5 in the second set. The two fought back-and-forth in the final set, with Faryniarz eventually losing 11-9. Senior
Chad Nguyen dropped the first set 6-1, focused in to win 6-3 in the second set and dropped the third set 10-6.
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The Rattlers are hoping to get in both matches of the doubleheader scheduled against Grand Valley State and No. 6 West Florida on Friday beginning at 9 a.m., though there is scheduled rain for the Pensacola area.
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