Eagles Wrap Up Georgia Southern Round Robins

Friday, November 7

Statesboro, Ga.

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Georgia Southern University

Georgia Southern Round Robins

11/9/2014 6:10:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Landin Finishes 3-0 To Win “B” Singles

By: Erika Brennan

Statesboro, Ga. – The Eagles wrapped up their fall season Sunday at the Georgia Southern Round Robin Tournament. Playing host to Georgia State and the College of Charleston, the Eagles got a "B" Singles win as well as numerous Top-5 finishes.

Jose Eduardo Landin Lopez won the "B" Singles flight that featured a total of 12 student-athletes. His record (3-0) placed him tied with Vasily Kichigin, however, the two did not play head-to-head. Going to the tiebreaker procedures, both were +5 on sets won/lost but Landin was +15 in total games while Kichigin was +14. On the final day he defeated Valentin Horvat of Georgia State 6-4, 7-6(7).

"I'm happy that Landin was able to take a flight title," commented Head Coach Nick Zieziula. "He was in the same position to win his flight in our last home tournament but played poorly in the final round. Today he got a little tight finishing off the sets but when it was really crunch time he managed his time well and ran the right plays. His hard work and attention to detail this semester has helped him improve in a lot of areas."

In "A' Singles, Ristomatti Lanne finished 3rd out of 10 student-athletes by posting a 2-1 record on the weekend. On Sunday, Lanne beat Charlie Ghriskey of the College of Charleston 6-1, 6-3. Christian Kerrigan managed a 3rd place finish in "B" Singles by going 2-1 over the tournament. On the final day, he was defeated by College of Charleston's Vasily Kichigin 4-6, 1-6.

"Overall we had a solid weekend. The most important thing is the improvement that our doubles has shown from August until now. We were very deficient in that area when we started the semester but the team has done a good job of staying focused on the process and the returners have done a great job teaching the newcomers the system," said Zieziula.

Of the 10 doubles teams competing in the tournament, Landin and Kyle Hoffman went 3-1 to finish 2nd while Lanne/Nico de Groof finished 3rd with a 3-1 mark. 3 teams tied with identical tallies of 3-1, but since they did not all play head-to-head the tiebreaker was settled by game differential. On the final day, Hoffman/Lanne got the victory over Baum/Bishop of Georgia State 8-5, while teammates Lanne/de Groof beat Handa/Horvat of Georgia State 8-3.

On day three, the tandem of Kerrigan and Albert Codina Sala won 8-2 over Daly/Faiman of College of Charleston to finish the tournament with a 2-2 mark. Robbie Thompson and Daniel Casablancas fell in doubles action to the College of Charleston's Ghriskey/Kichigin 2-8 to finish the tournament 1-3.

"Dani Casablancas had a great singles win today, came back from 5-2 down in the first set to take it 7-5. He nearly repeated the same feat in the 2nd set after starting down 5-2 and getting back to 5-4 but he dug deep in the third set and stayed patient from the baseline for a great win," remarked Zieziula. The 3 set thriller saw Casablancas beat Zack Lewis of the College of Charleston 7-5, 4-6, 6-2.

Other final day match-ups included Pradeep Raja who soundly defeated Georgia State's Christian Gochnauer 6-1, 6-1. DeGroof fell to Georgia State's Joseph Bishop 6-1, 4-6, 3-6 while teammates Codina Sala and Hoffman were also setback. Codina Sala fell to Georgia State's Eric Baum 6-7(4), 2-6, and Hoffman lost to Zack Kennedy of Georgia State 2-6, 1-6.

"If we were a little sharper today in a few key moments we could have taken home another Flight win and a few more W's, but we had a great fighting spirit this weekend as a team and that attitude will help us in the spring," concluded Zieziula.

The Eagles will now take a break before beginning the championship portion of their schedule in the Spring. The team will begin the quest for a Sun Belt Conference Title on January 10th when they travel to Atlanta, Ga. to take on Georgia Tech.

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