FORT MYERS, Fla. – Florida Gulf Coast extended its winning streak to five matches in a row Friday evening as the Eagles won four straight singles matches to defeat St. John's, 4-1, under the lights at the FGCU Tennis Complex.
The Red Storm (10-2), the reigning BIG EAST Conference champions, had won seven straight before visiting Fort Myers but saw that streak come to an abrupt halt despite starting with the doubles point.
FGCU (6-8) has now won five straight matches, and this victory over a BIG EAST team is its first since 2017, improving their all-time record against BIG EAST programs to 6-5. This win marked FGCU's second consecutive victory over St. John's, improving their record against the Red Storm to 2-1.
"St. John is well-coached," FGCU head coach
Josh Molino said after the win. "They are a conference champion team out of the Big East, so we had a lot of respect for them. We knew how to bring our best stuff. I'm really proud of the guys; they battled hard."
Down 1-0 with singles action beginning, the Green & Blue responded strongly, starting with
Stefan Correa's 6-4, 6-2 win over Taichi Wakamatsu at No. 6 singles as Correa moved to 9-6 on the year.
Pablo Paternostro then added a point for the home team with a 6-2, 7-6 (9-7) victory over David Petrovic at No. 2 singles.
Mika Bunjes extended the lead with a straight-set win, 6-3, 6-4, against Armando Sotelo at No. 4 singles.
Hasslegren clinched the match for the Eagles by defeating Sergej Zivkovic 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) at No. 5 singles.
"We lost the doubles point, but we know we are strong in singles," Hasslegren said after his match-clinching win. "We've been battling hard in singles and winning many matches because of that. I started off great, winning the first set 6-3. In the tiebreaker, I got really tired, to be honest, but I managed to win that tiebreaker 7-4."
The remaining singles matches involving
Tanner Povey and
Stavros Hadjivarnava were unfinished, as Florida Gulf Coast had already secured the win.
Earlier, St. John's claimed the doubles point with victories at No. 2 doubles and No. 3 doubles. Danilo Raicevic and Radomir Tomic secured a 6-3 win over Bunjes and Hasslegren at No. 2 doubles, while Semen Agynskyy and Adam Groves prevailed 6-4 against Correa and Hadjivarnava at No. 3 doubles. Florida Gulf Coast's Paternostro and Povey notched a 6-2 win against Armando Sotelo and Taichi Wakamatsu at No. 1 doubles, but it was not enough to take the point.
FGCU will host No. 68 Utah State on Sunday at Noon as the Aggies become the first ranked men's team to visit Fort Myers this season.
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA
For more information on the Eagles, follow FGCU Athletics on
Instagram,
X (Twitter) and
Facebook, and visit
FGCUathletics.com.
