Barry wins SSC regular-season title

MIAMI SHORES, Fla. -- Barry won the first Sunshine State Conference regular-season title in league history on Sunday, beating Lynn 7-2 on senior day at Buccaneer Tennis Center.

The No. 2 Buccaneers (17-2 overall, 6-0 SSC) picked up their ninth win against a nationally ranked opponent this season, this time with a victory against the No. 8 Fighting Knights, who fell to 12-5, 5-1. It was a match that featured three exciting doubles matches and three third-set singles battles before the Bucs finally prevailed.

Senior Leo Vivas paired with fellow senior Romain Costamagna in a key 8-6 No. 2 doubles victory against Vlad Cirla and Pavel Mohja.

All three of the doubles matches went down to the wire, leaving the momentum in the balance on a day where Vivas, Costamagna and Ollie Lemaitre were honored for their contributions in the past four years. Vivas has played for Barry for three seasons, while Lemaitre and Costamagna have spent all four years in Miami Shores.

Lemaitre and Ahmed Triki, the No. 3-ranked doubles team in the country, beat Daniel Riggs and Paolo Volpicelli 8-6 at No. 1. It gave Lemaitre 74 career doubles victories, which ranks sixth in school history.

Kevin Sielmann and Renato Lombardi won a battle at No. 3 pairs, beating Alessio Iannozzi and Tomas Prokop 9-8 (7-5) to complete the Bucs doubles sweep.

“We knew it was important to start really strong in doubles, to try to be 3-0 up after doubles,” Costamagna said. “Leo and myself, it was a really slow start, but we fought really hard. The other two doubles were really close, too, but we won. So it’s really good to start the singles 3-0 up, and it gave us a lot of confidence starting with singles.”

Barry’s 11th-ranked Fabian Groetsch defeated the 37th-ranked Prokop 6-2, 6-2 at No. 2 singles. Costamagna was a 6-1, 6-4 winner against the 36th-ranked Riggs at No. 3. Eighth-ranked Triki beat the 17th-ranked Cirla 6-3, 6-4 at No. 1 to give the Bucs three wins against nationally ranked opponents.

Mojha won a third-set tiebreaker versus Vivas 6-4, 3-6, 10-3 at No. 5. Barry’s Nico Dreer outlasted Volpicelli 6-3, 5-7, 13-11 in a gruelling fight at No. 4. Iannozzi held on for a 7-5, 3-6, 10-6 win at No. 6 in the third three-setter of the day.