DeLand, Fla. ? The 75th-ranked Stetson men's tennis team (6-3, 2-0 Atlantic Sun) ran its winning streak to four with a pair of 6-1 wins this week over conference foes, routing Gardner-Webb on Thursday and Campbell on Saturday by identical scores. Freshman Gokay Celik (Istanbul, Turkey) picked up his first career singles win against the Camels.
Against GWU, the Hatters won all three doubles matches and then won five singles matches in straight sets to record the victory. Freshman Chris Swanteson (Vaxjo, Sweden) was particularly dominating at #6 singles, thumping Taylor Ferrier 6-1, 6-1. Sophomore Hicham Laalej (Meknes, Morocco) and senior Joey Jones (Titusville, Fla.) each won their opening sets in a clean 6-0 sweep; Laalej finished off Andrew Veeder 6-2 in the second set while Jones had to battle Carlos Quijano to the end in a 7-5 win for Jones. Junior Filip Kricka (Umag, Croatia) won 6-3, 6-1 over Rafael Altmayer.
The doubles matches went to Stetson in a clean sweep with the #3 pairing of Celik and junior Serguei Boulanov (Bradenton, Fla.) taking an 8-2 win over Ryan Bernthal and Jamie Lawlor.
“This was a good start to our conference schedule,” Head Coach Pierre Pilote said. “We played solid doubles, which gave us good momentum going into the singles matches.”
Stetson's recent hot streak continued when Campbell came to town on Saturday morning. The Hatters dispatched the Camels by an identical 6-1 score that featured two different singles matches going to Stetson on third-set tiebreakers. Jones split the first two sets with Larbi Lamzouri at #2 singles 6-2, 3-6 before outlasting the visitor in a tiebreaker. Swanteson did likewise at #5 singles, although he had to rally from a set down to force the extra tennis.
Celik won his first singles match as a Hatter, stopping Sebastian Thesleff 6-2, 6-3 at the #6 position. He also teamed with Boulanov to win his #3 doubles match 8-5. In fact, Stetson nearly got a clean 7-0 sweep but back-to-back A-Sun Player of the Week Davy Sum was able to get past senior Marcus Echtler (Venice, Fla.) in a third-set tiebreaker.
“We played an excellent match today in both singles and doubles,” commented Pilote. “Campbell is one of the top teams in the A-Sun and will be a very tough out at the conference tournament.”
The Hatters are back in action Tuesday, March 4 at the Mandy Stoll Tennis Center in a matchup of nationally ranked teams. The #75 Hatters take on #69 Tennessee Tech in a match that begins at 11 a.m.
