Fort Myers, Fla. ? Stetson's top three singles players were double winners as the 56th-ranked Hatter men's tennis squad (19-4, 9-1 A-Sun) concluded the regular season with a 6-1 win at A-Sun foe Florida Gulf Coast on Wednesday. The Hatters locked up the second seed in the upcoming conference tournament.
The Eagles (10-9, 4-6 A-Sun) gave Stetson all it could handle, winning one singles match, one doubles match and forcing two other singles contests into a third set. Junior Serguei Boulanov (Venice, Fla.) and freshman Chris Swanteson (Vaxjo, Sweden) each had to go the distance to defeat their respective foes Ervin Garibovic and Edison Lima. Swanteson rallied from a set down to beat Lima in his #6 singles match.
Stetson's top trio of sophomore Hicham Laalej (Meknes, Morocco), senior Joey Jones (Titusville, Fla.) and junior Filip Kricka (Umag, Croatia) had a somewhat easier time of it, handling their FGCU opponents each in straight sets. Laalej completed a perfect conference regular season at 9-0 and improved his overall singles record to an astounding 20-1 with his 16th consecutive victory.
The Hatters had to work hard to capture the doubles point, getting an 8-6 win from Laalej and Kricka at the #2 position and a tense 9-8 victory by Jones and freshman Gokay Celik (Istanbul, Turkey) at #3 over Garibovic and Lima. Brenton Bacon and Andrew Kam kept FGCU in it to the end in doubles with an 8-6 win over Boulanov and Swanteson.
“This was a great way to finish the best regular season in the history of our program,” Head Coach Pierre Pilote said. “To win another match on the road against a tough team like FGCU is always difficult. The Eagles were excellently prepared and this match could really have gone either way. The top of our lineup once again delivered an excellent performance and led the whole team in executing our match plan.”
Stetson now turns its attention to the Atlantic Sun conference tournament, which begins next Friday, April 18 in Johnson City, Tenn. and will be hosted by 39th-ranked ETSU. The Hatters will be the second seed behind regular season champs ETSU and will open with seventh-seeded Lipscomb. Stetson swept the Bisons 7-0 last Friday in Nashville.
