The Sandspur

Issue date: 4/29/05 Section: Sports

Media Credit: RC SID THIRD PLACE: The Rollins Women´s Tennis team took third place in their conference tournament as did the men.

It was a tough weekend for the tennis teams last week, as they traveled to Melbourne (Florida, not Australia, in case you were wondering) for the semifinals of the Sunshine State Conference tennis tournament.

Play began Thursday and ended Saturday for both the men's and women's teams. Both teams had an up and down season, with the women winning some tough matches against teams like the University of Utah, Georgia College & State University, and Tampa (it's always nice when a Rollins team beats a team from Tampa). The men faced up against rivals from BYU Hawaii, Kalamazoo and Florida Southern, and came out on top in 15 of their 20 matches (4-2 in conference play) and went into this weekend seeded third.

The women's team finished the season 14-4 overall, and 6-2 in conference play. They entered this week's tournament also seeded third.

Both teams faced #2 seeded Barry in the semifinals, and both teams struggled. The men, who have been strong throughout the season in doubles, failed to win any of their pairs' matches. Matt Umbers and Jono Gomex, who have been ranked as high as seventh nationally, fell to Thomas Hipp and Patrick Rittenauer in a very close match, losing 8-6.

Daid Tafur and Jeffery Birse lost in an even closer match; the final score was 9-8, while the third doubles team of Michael Schwartz and Mike Compton lost 9-7. All the matches could have gone either way, and were pretty tough loses for the Rollins men who then had to try to make up the deficit in the singles matches. Unfortunately it wasn't meant to be. Tafur lost his match 6-2, 6-2. Birse played another nail bitter, that could easily have been a Rollins victory, but ended up losing 7-5, 6-4. These losses gave the Barry men enough of a lead to take the day, and the other matches were left unfinished. On Saturday the men took the court again for the third place match against Eckerd college.

The doubles teams struggled again, but the number one pair, Umbers and Gomez, managed to save the day by winning their match 8-4, while the other two pairs fell to the Eckerd two and three teams. Singles went much better for the Tars, they won all their matches, leaving two unfinished.

The women faced Barry in the semis as well, and only managed to win two of their seven matches. The two wins came from Tricia Gehret in singles, and Tasi Purcell and Marnie Mahler in doubles. They too played for third place on Saturday, but didn't have quite as smooth a day as the men. Their opponents, forth seeds Florida Southern, played hard till the end, but the Tars ended up winning 5-4. Kat Hamlin and Marnie Mahler came through for the Tars in singles competition, while all three doubles teams won their matches.

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