DeLand, Fla. ? The 75th-ranked Stetson men's tennis team (7-3) picked up its second win of the season over a fellow Top 75 opponent on Tuesday, edging #51 Tennessee Tech 4-3 at the Mandy Stoll Tennis Center. Sophomore Hicham Laalej (Meknes, Morocco) and junior Filip Kricka (Umag, Croatia) each won singles and doubles matches. The Hatters have now won five matches in a row.
Laalej teamed with senior Joey Jones (Titusville, Fla.) to win 8-4 at #3 doubles over James Crawford and Mario Gutierrez before dispatching his #2 singles opponent, Tiago Gilioli, 6-3, 6-2. Kricka and senior Marcus Echtler (Venice, Fla.) rolled past Dean O'Brien and Giovanni Vaglietti 8-3 at #1 doubles. It would be Kricka that clinched the victory for Stetson as the fourth point of the match for the Hatters was provided by his 6-4, 7-5 takedown of Juan Gomez.
Freshman Gokay Celik (Istanbul, Turkey) also won for the Hatters sweeping Gutierrez 6-4, 6-0 in sixth singles. Today's match was the first time Mandy Stoll Tennis Center hosted a match between two nationally ranked squads.
The Golden Eagles came into today's match sporting a perfect 7-0 record that included a win over then-#57 Georgia State as well as defeats of Atlantic Sun squads Lipscomb and Mercer.
“It was an honor to play such a classy program as Tennessee Tech,” Head Coach Pierre Pilote said. “To beat an undefeated, nationally ranked team in such windy conditions requires great poise and our guys showed that today. Hopefully we will rise in the next ranking.”
Stetson shoots for its sixth straight win when A-Sun rival North Florida comes to town for a 12 p.m. match on Thursday at the Mandy Stoll Tennis Center. Immediately following that match, Head Coach Sasha Schmid's women's tennis team will also take the courts against the UNF Lady Ospreys.
