DeLand, Fla. ? The Stetson men's tennis team (1-0) began the 2008 dual match season Wednesday afternoon with a dominating 7-0 victory over Volusia County rival Bethune-Cookman (0-1) at the Mandy Stoll Tennis Center.  All six singles matches as well as the three doubles matches ended in straight-set wins for the Hatters, who have now won nine consecutive regular season matches and 11 of their last 12 at home.

Senior Joey Jones (Titusville, Fla.), playing at #2 singles, rolled past B-CU's Christian Cruz 6-0, 6-1 while classmate Bret Feldman (Inverness, Fla.) had nearly as easy a time of it in a 6-1, 6-1 win at #6 singles over Kristofer Martin.

Sophomore Hicham Laalej (Meknes, Morocco) overcame a strong second-set challenge from Stefan James to record the 6-1, 7-5 victory at #3 singles.  Matches at #1 and #4 singles were mirror images of each other.  Senior Marcus Echtler (Venice, Fla.) won 6-3, 6-2 over Emil Vassilev at #1 while junior Filip Kricka (Umag, Croatia) got his win at #4 by a 6-2, 6-3 score against Yannick Jackson.  Freshman Chris Swanteson (Vaxjo, Sweden) got his dual match college career started on the right foot with a 6-3, 6-1 win at #5 singles over Jerome Ward.

All three doubles matches went to the Hatters in a single set each.  Echtler and Kricka teamed up to blast through James and Vassilev 8-0 at the #1 pairing to highlight the doubles portion of the proceedings.  Jones and Swanteson won 8-3 at #2 over Ward and Cruz while Feldman and Laalej defeated Jackson and Martin 8-4 at #3.

“This win was a great start to our challenging schedule with four of our next six matches on the road against nationally ranked teams,” Head Coach Pierre Pilote said.  “I'm really looking forward to see what this team can do this year.  We have a great blend of upperclassman leadership and hungry underclassmen.”

The Hatters return to the courts Wednesday, February 6 when they visit archrival UCF.  The match will begin at 2 p.m.