Mobile, Ala. ? The Stetson men's tennis team (3-3) split a pair of matches this weekend at South Alabama, falling to 32nd-ranked Clemson on Saturday before taking down the host Jaguars, ranked #58 in the nation on Sunday. The win over USA is the first by Stetson over a nationally ranked team since beating #70 Utah last February 17 in DeLand.
In the 5-2 loss to Clemson at USA's Bruce David Lubel Memorial Tennis Courts, senior Marcus Echtler (Venice, Fla.) defeated his second nationally ranked opponent this year when he took down #99 Rok Bizjak in straight sets, 7-5, 6-4 at #1 singles. Senior Joey Jones (Titusville, Fla.) won his match at #3 singles when he rallied from a set down against Kevin Fleck to win 2-6, 6-4 and then took a tiebreaker. Jones also helped pick up a win in doubles when he teamed with junior Serguei Boulanov (Bradenton, Fla.) to beat Gera Boryachinskiy and Kevin Galloway 8-6.
The Hatters rebounded from that loss in fine fashion, returning to the Jaguar campus Sunday morning and taking down the home team 4-3. Sophomore Hicham Laalej (Meknes, Morocco) won a lengthy match at #2 singles to help the Hatters record the win. He lost the first set to Marek Sramek 6-1, but dug in from there to edge Sramek 7-6 in the second set and then win the third set 6-3. Boulanov also beat Aaron Krisan in three sets, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 to piock up another key point for Stetson. Echtler, although he lost his match, held his own against the nation's ninth-ranked singles player Jack Baker, ultimately falling 6-2, 6-3.
South Alabama did not field players at either #6 singles or #3 doubles, giving Stetson a free singles point. The Hatters picked up the doubles point as well when Echtler and junior Filip Kricka (Umag, Croatia) beat Baker and Sramek 8-2 at #1 doubles.
“To defeat a program such as South Alabama on its home court is a tremendous accomplishment,” Head Coach Pierre Pilote said. “They are always a highly-ranked team and the fact that they beat Clemson yesterday shows that. Hicham (Laalej) clinched the match for us with another big win. I am very proud of our guys for our consistent efforts against one nationally ranked team after another.”
The Hatters are back in action tomorrow afternoon, Feb. 25, when they host Furman at the Mandy Stoll Tennis Center at 2:30 p.m.
