Johnson City, Tenn. ? The 56th-ranked Stetson men's tennis team (21-5) saw its seven-match winning streak come to an end in the championship match of the Atlantic Sun conference tournament on Sunday as the Hatters fell 4-0 to 37th-ranked hosts East Tennessee State. The Hatters, who defeated three Top 75 squads this season, will have a nervous wait until Tuesday, April 29 when they will find out whether or not they have been selected to compete in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history.
The Hatters were dealt a cruel blow in doubles as not only did ETSU (22-3) take the #2 and #3 matches and with it the doubles point, but freshman Gokay Celik (Istanbul, Turkey) suffered an injury that left him unable to compete in singles; that point was defaulted to the Bucs, who thus needed to win only two of the five singles matches to clinch the championship.
They did so in straight sets with wins by Lisandro Picardo and 71st-ranked A-Sun Player of the Year/A-Sun Tournament MVP Enrique Olivares over junior Filip Kricka (Umag, Croatia) and senior Marcus Echtler (Venice, Fla.). Echtler, Kricka and sophomore Hicham Laalej (Meknes, Morocco) were all named to the All-Tournament Team.
Pairings for the NCAA Men's Tennis Tournament will be revealed on Tuesday, April 29 with the singles tournament bracket unveiled the following day.
