Franciscan 5, Westminster 4

Doubles    
    Aidan Palladino stepped up into the #1 doubles pair with Travis Mistry and the pair managed to pull of the win in a tight competition. Travis Mistry was a force in doubles play. The top pair were close to losing the match, but edged out the last point to win 8-7. Mental toughness and dependability are not common in freshmen. The doubles victory tonight is an attribute to the maturity and potential freshmen Travis Mistry has. 
    Leo Morella played in the #2 doubles pair for the first time this season to play with Josh Robbins. Morella has had extremely high success in doubles play all year in the #3 spot, and has continued that success streak today. The #2 pair beat their opponents 8-4. 
    James Scanlon saw his second career start in the #3 doubles pair playing with senior Billy Presume. This is the first time the pair have played together, and the lack of chemistry held them back and contributed to the 8-4 loss.
    Going into singles play the Barons were leading 2-1 and only needed to win 3 of the 6 matches to clinch the victory. 
   
Singles
    Travis Mistry had to step up into the #1 singles role with teammate Pierre out, but the spotlight didn't faze him. Mistry quickly won his singles match dropping only 4 games. Josh Robbins had an up and down match in the #3 spot. Robbins lost his first set 3-6, then stormed back and forced a tie break set with a straight second set. The tiebreak set was close, but Westminster's Scorford edged out the victory winning the match. Aidan Palladino (#4) and James Scanlon (#6) each lost their matches. These losses brought the Titans to 4 match points and were one point away from victory. The final two matches were the #2 and #5 matchups. Billy Presume lost a close first set against the Titan's #2 hitter. Presume then went down early in the second set, but came back hard and won the second set 6-2. The 3rd tie break set was a close one. Presume managed to win the 3rd set 10-8 grabbing his first #2 victory this season. With the score 4-4 everything came down to Leo Morella in the #5 spot. Morella already stepped up in doubles play and grabbed a point for the team there. In singles play Morella has never played the #5 spot. His match was in a tiebreak set and everyone was watching and cheering. This match was for not only a win, but a chance for the Barons to finish #2 going into playoffs. Morella may be an upperclassmen academically, but he is a first year player for the Barons. A tiebreak set with the match and season on the line is a lot for a newcomer to handle. Morella delivered and won as coach describes, "in glorious fashion". This secured the 5th and final point, and the Barons beat the Titans.

Who's Next? 
Franciscan will end their regular season at Thiel on Saturday. This is the first matchup all-time between the Tomcats and Barons, as last season's matchup was canceled. The Tomcats are in the bottom half of the conference, but have three matches this week to flip the script on their season.

Stay Connected 
Be sure to follow Franciscan University on Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for the most in-depth coverage of FUS athletics.