PENSACOLA, Fl. - In a showdown of two of the best teams in the nation, the second-ranked Columbus State University men's tennis team hit the road to take down fourth-ranked West Florida 4-1 on Tuesday. The match took place in Pensacola, Florida.
In doubles play it was West Florida that jumped out to the early lead. They grabbed points at first and third doubles as top-ranked Alvaro Regalado and Zach Whaanga dropped a close match 4-6 in the top spot. It was Fabien Asdrubal and Arnold Kokulewski who fell in third doubles 6-7 allowing West Florida to escape with the point. In second doubles 10th-ranked Matei Avram and KP Pannu grabbed a 6-3 victory for the Cougars.
Trailing 1-0 heading to singles, Columbus State (11-1, 1-0 PBC) started to rally back behind strong play from their individuals.
The Cougars got three straight set wins in singles to jump back out to the lead. 27th-ranked Whaanga got revenge on one of his doubles counterparts Serdar Bojadjiev. Ranked eighth in the entire nation in singles, Bojadjiev was held at bay as Whaanga secured a 7-5, 6-1 victory over him to earn a point.
25th-ranked Regalado picked up a dominating 6-0, 6-2 straight set win to earn the Cougars another point at third singles. Over at sixth singles it was Avram who took on 34th-ranked Juan Motta with the junior from Romania winning 6-3, 6-4 as the Cougars went up 3-1.
Needing just one final point Asdrubal grabbed a three set win over his opponent 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 giving the Cougars their first win ever at West Florida.
With the match in hand, the first and fifth singles went unfinished with Pannu ahead 6-1, 6-7, 2-1 and Kokulewski on top 1-6, 6-4, 2-0.
Columbus State will head home and jump back into conference play to take on Flagler on Saturday, March 23. The match is scheduled to begin at 11:00 a.m. at the Walden Tennis Center.