Mobile, Ala. ? For the second year in a row the 64th-ranked Stetson men's tennis team (4-2) went on the road to defeat #72 South Alabama as the Hatters edged the Jaguars 4-3 Friday afternoon. Junior Mark Mestan (Cologne, Germany), the current Atlantic Sun Men's Tennis Player of the Week, earned the clinching points at both doubles and singles to lead Stetson to its fifth win over a Top 75 squad in the last two years.
Stetson was unranked on February 24, 2008 when it came to Mobile and beat 58th-ranked USA 4-3; when the Hatters showed up today, just four days shy of a full year later, they were ranked eight places higher than its hosts and managed a win by the same score.
Mestan and freshman Maksim Levanovich (Minsk, Belarus) clinched the doubles point for Stetson with an 8-5 victory at the #3 slot against Hanno Bartsch and Dauw Kruger; the Hatters also won at the top of the lineup when freshman Njal Stene (Oslo, Norway) and sophomore Chris Swanteson (Vaxjo, Sweden) got together to knock off Sergio Ramirez and Romain Bocaert 8-6.
The Hatters and Jaguars split the singles matches 3-3 and Stetson's doubles point gave the visitors the win. Levanovich rolled past Aaron Krisan 6-1, 6-1 at #4 singles while freshman Cesare Gallo (Portogruaro, Italy) also earned a straight-set victory, dropping Leo Dominguez 6-4, 6-4 in the #5 position. After a pair of USA two-set wins and a narrow Bartsch takedown of freshman Alon DeKoker (Longboat, Key, Fla.) at #6 singles by a 7-6, 2-6, 6-4 margin, it was up to Mestan to bring Stetson a victory. The transfer from Hawai'i Pacific came through in the clutch with a 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 three-set win over Marek Sramek at #2 singles to seal the victory.
“This was a great win for us, not only to beat a nationally ranked team, but to do it on the road,” said Head Coach Pierre Pilote. “To beat such a strong team as South Alabama on their courts two years in a row is a huge accomplishment for our guys and we feel very fortunate to pull it off. I'm extremely proud of them.”
Stetson will stick around Mobile for one more day to face UAB at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning. The Blazers had been ranked 75th in the ITA national poll before falling out of this week's ranking.
