FGCU Tennis Eagles on the Move

The bandwagon still has some room on it, but that’s only because it’s only just leaving the station. A few more stops and you might not be able to find a seat on the Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) Men’s Tennis Team bandwagon.

Coach Weber and boys watch Jackson battle

In one of their grittiest performance of the young season, the Eagles bounced back after losing the doubles point, to edge Mercer 4-3, posting their second consecutive Atlantic Sun Conference (ASC) win. The boys in blue and green shook off the troubling trend of failing to close out matches when holding a lead, to post their third win in four consecutive home matches.

Tianyu Bao & Jackson Moore

In the doubles, Court 1 fell, 3-8, to a solid team, but Court 3 failed to hold the lead for the second straight match. Colin Brown and Dean Tsamas were up a break with Dean serving at 5-4, but didn’t win another game, losing 5-8.

Lance Lvovksy & Matt Rock

Matt Rock and Lance Lvovsky continue to answer the gut checks they seem to face every match. In a nip and tuck affair, the Eagles refused to be broken, although they were seriously tested with Lance serving at 6-6, 15-40. Good serving and solid play got them back to deuce, and the game went on for several minutes with multiple deuces, game points, and break points. Nobody could close out the game.

Lance Lvovsky & Matt Rock

Finally, with the ad, the Eagles played a tremendous point to hold, and that seemed to break Mercer’s spirit. Two Doubles had posted another tough win: 8-6. In two of their previous three matches Matt and Lance had won in tiebreaks.

Tianyu Bao

In singles, at No.1, Tianyu Bao had a fierce struggle on his hands, losing the first set 3-6, and battling to take the second set in a 7-5 tiebreak. By the time he had finished his second set, the match had already been decided in FGCU’s favor, so he played a super-tiebreak. He suffered a heartbreaker, losing 12-10 after holding two match points.  

Jackson Moore

With Jackson Moore at No.2 singles, you simply cannot judge what is likely to happen in the match until it’s over. Over his last four matches, Moore has come back to win in two of the three matches in which he lost the first set. In the match against Mercer, Moore wasn’t his stellar best in dropping the first set 4-6, but came on strong taking the second 6-4, and the third 6-1 for his third singles victory in a row.

Dean Tsamas

Dean Tsamas got back on the winning track in singles with 6-1, 6-1 victory at No.3. Dean brought his singles record to 7-2. He had won five consecutive matches before losing against No.75 U-Penn in his last match. Dean’s style is unique and based heady play, good movement, and an assortment of spins that drive opponents batty. It should stand him in good stead for the rest of the season.

Matt Rock

At No.4, Matt Rock seems to be struggling a bit with his confidence. A former No.1 singles player for the Eagles, Matt lost 3-6, 1-6 to a player I’m betting he believes he should beat more often than not. We’re hoping Matt remembers why he played No.1 singles not too long ago.

Lance Lvovsky

Lance Lvovsky is holding down the No.5 singles spot as well as he’s posting the “W”s at No.2 doubles. Lance brought his singles record to 6-3 after posting a 6-4, 6-3 victory against Mercer.

Mike Beiler

At No.6, Michael Beiler won two tight sets (7-5, 7-5) to give the Eagles a 3-2 lead in the dual match. Beiler has won three of his last four matches at the six-spot, and seems to be finding his stride.

Gabe Echeverry, Coach Weber, Asst Coach Napoli

Head Coach C. J. Weber was thrilled with the victory. He noted that this was the first time the team had won a dual match after having lost the doubles point. With a 5-4 record and a 2-0 start in the ASC, Coach Weber is feeling pretty optimistic about his young team.

Tony Yates (background), Jim "Duke" Dilling
& Jerry "Duke" Babson

The Eagles travel to Spartanburg, South Carolina on Friday the 23rd to take on University of South Carolina- Upstate Spartans. The Spartans are tough at home, posting a 4-1 home record thus far, and they are hungry for a victory after losing two in a row on the road. It’ll be a tall order for the Eagles, but one Coach Weber believes they can fill to take his team’s conference record to 3-0. We shall soon see. 

The Eagles next home match will be on Thursday, March 29, at 7pm against North Florida, which has already beaten the No.s 42 and 43-ranked teams in the country. The Eagles will need as much support as they can muster for that one. I plan to be there. How about you? Game, set, match...T A