ORLANDO, Fla. – The Fairleigh Dickinson men's tennis team opened up its Spring Break trip to Florida with a 5-2 victory over Fairfield at the USTA National Campus on Wednesday.
 
The Knights (6-5) won two of three doubles matches before also earning victories in four of six singles bouts to defeat the Stags (5-6). FDU senior Ivan Solans Diaz and redshirt sophomore Niclas Pietsch won both in singles and doubles, with sophomore Mehdi Dhouib and junior Youssef Sader also picking up singles wins in the match.
 
Solans Diaz first teamed with junior Moric Budinszky at second doubles, and the duo won their match 6-2 over Tyler Shibles and Lewis Edwards. The FDU senior later battled back after dropping the first set of his singles duel with Stefan Mitrovic, 4-6, and shut out Mitrovic 6-0 in the second set to force a supertiebreaker. Solans Diaz then edged out his opponent, 10-7, to earn his seventh singles win in 11 dual matches this spring.
 
Pietsch paired with freshman Teodors Pukse and won at no. 1 doubles, 7-6 (5) over Kaya Gore and Jonathan Olive-Blanco, helping clinch the doubles point for FDU. The redshirt-sophomore then bounced back after a 4-6 first-set defeat against Edwards, winning his second set 6-3 to also force a supertiebreaker. Pietsch then gutted out a 10-8 win to capture his 11th singles win overall and fifth of the spring.
 
Dhouib and Sader both won their respective singles matches at the no. 2 and no. 6 spots in straight sets. Dhouib dispatched Shibles while only dropping one game, 6-1, 6-0, while Sader edged out his opponent Allan Magid 6-4, 6-2. Dhouib now has 14 singles wins, second-most on the team, while Sader improves to 12-5 in singles this season.
 
Pukse and junior Andris Gudins also competed for FDU in singles, both dropping their matches in straight sets. Gudins also played at no. 3 doubles with junior Eduardo Cabral, who made his spring debut after missing 10 matches due to injury. The FDU duo, however, fell in their match, 3-6, to Mitrovic and William Townsend Font.
 
The Knights play on Wednesday at the USTA National Campus against Quinnipiac at 3 p.m., in their second and final match of their Florida trip.
 
BOX SCORE
 
DOUBLES
Teodors Pukse/Niclas Pietsch (FDU) def. Kaya Gore/Jonathan Olive-Blanco (FFD), 7-6 (5)
Ivan Solans Diaz/Moric Budinszky (FDU) def. Lewis Edwards/Tyler Shibles (FFD), 6-2
Stefan Mitrovic/William Townsend Font (FFD) def. Andris Gudins/Eduardo Cabral (FDU), 6-3
 
SINGLES
Gore (FFD) def. Pukse (FDU), 6-1, 6-3
Dhouib (FDU) def. Shibles (FFD), 6-1, 6-0
Pietsch (FDU) def. Edwards (FFD) 4-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-8)
Olive-Blanco (FFD) def. Gudins (FDU), 6-2, 6-4
Solans Diaz (FDU) def. Mitrovic (FFD), 4-6, 6-0, 1-0 (10-7)
Youssef Sader (FDU) def. Allan Magid (FFD), 6-4, 6-2