Johnson City, Tenn. ? Three members of the 56th-ranked Stetson men's tennis team (21-4) picked up wins in singles and doubles as the second-seeded Hatters picked up a 4-1 win over third-seeded Campbell in the semifinals of the Atlantic Sun conference tournament Saturday afternoon.
With the victory, Stetson advances to its third straight conference finals where it will face 36th-ranked host ETSU tomorrow. The winner will receive the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Seniors Marcus Echtler (Venice, Fla.) and Joey Jones (Titusville, Fla.) won their singles matches in straight sets while junior Filip Kricka (Umag, Croatia) rallied from a set down to clinch the match with a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 win over Marc Sifre at #4 singles.
Echtler and Jones were 8-3 winners in their doubles match while Kricka and his partner, sophomore Hicham Laalej (Meknes, Morocco), won by the same score to put the doubles point in Stetson's column.
“Campbell played a great match and I give them a ton of credit,” Head Coach Pierre Pilote said. “Filip came up with another big win for us as well.”
The Hatters and tomorrow's foe, the ETSU Buccaneers, also met in the regular season in Johnson City with the Bucs taking a hard-fought 4-3 victory. The championship match is scheduled for 10 a.m. Sunday.
