DeLand, Fla. ? Playing its third match in as many days after an eight-hour ride home from the University of South Alabama, the Stetson men's tennis team (4-3) summoned up the energy to defeat a battle-tested Furman squad Monday afternoon at the Mandy Stoll Tennis Center. Junior Filip Kricka (Umag, Croatia) clinched the match for the Hatters with a three-set win at #4 singles and also won his doubles match.
With the match tied 3-3, Kricka dropped his first set 6-3 to Furman's Jordan Walters but then outlasted his opponent in each of the next two sets, taking a pair of tiebreakers after the duo deadlocked at 6-6 each time.
“Filip really came through for us there,” Head Coach Pierre Pilote said. “His teammates knew he would leave it all on the court for them and he did.”
Senior Joey Jones (Titusville, Fla.) also got a three-set win when he defeated Chris Motes 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 at the #3 position. Sophomore Hicham Laalej (Meknes, Morocco) was a straight-set winner over Daniel Knause 6-1, 6-3. Chris Swanteson (Vaxjo, Sweden), a freshman, narrowly missed out on a singles win when his Paladin foe Michael Kociecki came back from a 6-4 loss in the first set to take the next two by scores of 7-6 and 6-4.
Stetson took the doubles point thanks to a pair of wins in long, hard-fought matches. Kricka teamed with senior Marcus Echtler (Venice, Fla.) to beat Chris Rhyne and Andrei Chvetsov 9-8 in a #1 doubles match that went to a tiebreaker. Laalej and freshman Gokay Celik (Istanbul, Turkey) defeated Knause and Jason Basile 9-7 at #3 doubles. It was the first collegiate win for Celik.
Furman, which was ranked as high as 64th earlier this season, fell to 1-5 with the loss as the formerly nationally-ranked Paladins have had to contend with a brutally tough opening schedule. In addition to playing the Hatters here in DeLand, Furman has grappled with third-ranked Georgia, 13th-ranked Tennessee, 14th-ranked Florida, 20th-ranked Alabama and #38 Georgia Tech all on the road. Furman's next two matches are also on the road against #56 USF and #26 Miami (Fla.).
“It was great to be back home and show all our fans the kind of tennis we have been playing on the road,” Pilote said. “I give the guys a lot of credit for being able to give so much on the court after coming back to campus early this morning, especially against a team as tough as Furman. They always play one of the nation's toughest schedules and are almost always nationally ranked.”
Stetson opens Atlantic Sun conference action Thursday at home against Gardner-Webb. The match at the Mandy Stoll Tennis Center will begin at approximately 3:30 p.m. following the conclusion of the women's tennis matchup against GWU.
