Rocky River, Ohio ? The 64th-ranked Stetson men's tennis team (2-0) began preparations for the ITA Season Kickoff at Ohio State this weekend with a 5-2 win at Cleveland State Thursday evening at the River Oaks Racquet Club. Junior Mark Mestan (Cologne, Germany), sophomore Chris Swanteson (Vaxjo, Sweden) and freshman Njal Stene (Oslo, Norway) all recorded wins in singles and doubles.
The Vikings (0-2) gave the Hatters a serious battle in most singles matches, picking up their two points in long three-set matches. Mestan, Stene and Swanteson had a somewhat easier time of it, picking up straight set victories, the most dominant of which was Swanteson's 6-0, 6-2 takedown of Steven Wipprecht at #6 singles. Freshman Maksim Levanovich (Minsk, Belarus) also won in two sets, although he had to go to a tiebreaker in the second set to finally shake CSU's Robert Fox.
Earlier in doubles, Mestan teamed with freshman Cesare Gallo (Portogruaro, Italy) to beat Fox and Rob West 8-4 at the #2 position while Levanovich and Stene joined forces to beat Wipprecht and Yannick Goossens 8-4 at the #3 slot.
Stetson, which moved up one spot in the national rankings released earlier today, must now gear up for the toughest foe it will face all season: top-ranked Ohio State in the first round of the ITA Season Kickoff in Columbus on Friday. Five Buckeyes are ranked in the top 77 of the national singles rankings, and three in the top six including #1 Bryan Koniecko and #3 Steven Moneke. The Hatters will wrap up the tournament on Saturday against either #30 Virginia Tech or #41 New Mexico.
