Palm Beach Atlantic Box Score | Florida Atlantic Box Score | Lynn Box Score

The Duquesne men's tennis team recently completed a three match Spring Break trip in Florida. The Dukes competed against a pair of nationally ranked Division II teams in Palm Beach Atlantic and Lynn University and Florida Atlantic.

Duquesne's first match was against Palm Beach Atlantic at the Mitch Gornto Tennis Complex in West Palm Beach. The Sailfish are ranked #37 in NCAA Division II and #9 in the Southeast Region. PBA took the match 7-2.

PBA began the match by sweeping the doubles points - which in D-II counts as three separate points. The Dukes were able to get victories at #5 and #6 singles. Harry Walshe was a 6-1, 6-2 winner at #5 and Mehdi Mekaoui 6-2, 6-4 at #6.

At #1 singles, Rich Robbie battled with Romain Nowaczyk before falling 13-11 in a marathon breaker. Corey Robinson faced off against the #47 ranked player in D-II in Nicolas Uryson at #2 singles. Although Uryson was a 6-1, 6-1 winner, Robinson played him extremely hard.

The second match of the trip was at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. FAU plays in Conference USA. The Owls were 6-1 winners with the Dukes only point coming at #6 singles in Mekaoui's 5-7, 6-1, 10-8 win over Alexander Gitin.

The trip wrapped up at Lynn University, also in Boca Raton. Lynn is ranked #9 in D-II and #7 in the Southeast Region. The Fighting Knights were 6-3 winners.

Lynn has a pair of doubles teams that are highly ranked nationally, however they switched up their starting lineup. This played into the Dukes favor as Alex Aleman and Walshe were 8-3 winners over Daniel Riggs and Fernando Rivas at #2. Riggs is one half of a doubles team that is ranked #1 in D-II. Adam Blasinsky and Mekaoui took out Alessio Iannozi and Paolo Volpicelli at #3 by the score of 8-2. Volpicelli is the other half of the #1 ranked doubles team and Iannozi is half of the team that is ranked #16.

In singles, Walshe outlasted Ethan Itzkovitz 6-3, 2-6, 10-8 at #5.

At #1 singles, Robbie was matched up against Riggs, who is the #23 ranked singles player in D-II. Robbie played Riggs tough, but fell 6-3, 6-2.

Next up for Duquesne (6-4) is Wright State. The match will be played on March 14th at Alpha Fitness and Tennis of Pittsburgh. Start time is 5:00 p.m.