(Davidson, N.C.) ? The Stetson men's tennis team pulled out a grueling 4-3 road victory at Davidson Saturday afternoon. It was the fourth straight win for the Hatters, who improved to 15-6 on the season.
“We played an outstanding match today,” head coach Pierre Pilote said. “To come back from 1-3 down to win the last three matches on the courts in three sets was such a great comeback.”
Freshman Hicham Laalej improved to a team-best 18-3 (including 9-0 at the No.1 position) with a 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 victory over Flaviu Simihaian. Filip Kricka took the clinching win at No. 3 singles, 6-3, 5-7, 6-1 over Scott Myers. Serguei Boulanov took his fourth straight decision with a straight sets win at No. 4 singles.
Davidson won the doubles point after taking three close matches.
"We knew that Davidson was solid in doubles and we still had our chances to get the doubles point, but repeated questionable calls and only one referee to deal with the situations made it even more difficult," Pilote said. “The large partisan crowd did not affect our team.”
The Hatters will play their final road game ? and final conference contest ? Monday at Gardner-Webb in a match originally scheduled for Sunday afternoon.
Results
Stetson University vs Davidson College
3/31/2007 at Davidson, N.C.
Stetson University 4, Davidson College 3
Singles competition
1. LAALEJ, Hicham (STET) def. SIMIHAIAN, Flaviu (DAV) 6-3, 1-6, 6-3
2. BOLTON, John (DAV) def. ECHTLER, Marcus (STET) 7-6, Ret.
3. KRICKA, Filip (STET) def. MYERS, Scott (DAV) 6-3, 5-7, 6-1
4. BOULANOV, Serguei (STET) def. JAFFEE, Ethan (DAV) 6-3, 6-4
5. JONES, Joey (STET) def. NOBLE, Eric (DAV) 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (1)
6. BURNS, Sam (DAV) def. STAMP, Daniel (STET) 7-6 (5), 6-1
Doubles competition
1. BOLTON, John/SIMIHAIAN, Flaviu (DAV) def. #84 ECHTLER, Marcus/KRICKA, Filip (STET) 8-6
2. JAFFEE, Ethan/BURNS, Sam (DAV) def. JONES, Joey/BOULANOV, Serguei (STET) 8-7 (1)
3. COMPEAU, Phillip/MYERS, Scott (DAV) def. DZUBA, Peter/STAMP, Daniel (STET) 9-7
Match Notes:
Stetson University 15-6, 5-2 A-Sun
Davidson College 6-12, 1-5 SoCon
Order of finish: Doubles (1,3,2); Singles (2,4,6,5,1,3)