Mobile, Ala. ? The 64th-ranked Stetson men's tennis team (5-2) made its case to move up in next week's ITA national rankings with its second consecutive 4-3 road/neutral victory, this time knocking off former national #75 UAB (1-4) in a match held at the University of South Alabama that took 4 hours and 22 minutes to play. Freshman Maksim Levanovich (Minsk, Belarus) earned the clinching point for Stetson with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 victory at #3 singles; he also won in doubles and went 4-0 on the weekend in Mobile after accomplishing the same feat in yesterday's 4-3 win over #72 South Alabama.
Prior to Levanovich's match-clinching victory over Dennis Ehrlich, he teamed with senior Filip Kricka (Umag, Croatia) to take down the Blazer duo of Alex Emery and Daniel Cornei 8-4 at #2 doubles. Junior Mark Mestan (Cologne, Germany) and freshman Cesare Gallo (Portogruaro, Italy) brought home the doubles point for the Hatters with a 9-8 (4) win over Ehrlich and Slavek Szeremata at the #3 slot.
Kricka and Mestan also won singles matches to bring Stetson its third straight win and Head Coach Pierre Pilote his 298th career victory as he closes in on the 300 milestone. Mestan won in straight sets again at #2 singles, downing Cornei 6-4, 6-1 while Kricka had to sweat out a 6-2, 6-7, 6-3 three-set battle against UAB's Brian Ly to earn a point for the Hatters at the top of the lineup.
“This was another great win for us and when combined with the win over South Alabama yesterday, it might just be the greatest weekend in this program's history,” Pilote noted. “Max (Maksim Levanovich) and Filip came up huge for us with third set wins; Max in particular broke his opponent's serve to win the final game on the ninth match point. What a performer he's been for us as a freshman!”
Stetson returns home to face Siena at 2:30 p.m. at the Mandy Stoll Tennis Center. The Hatters swept the Saints of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) 7-0 at home last season and hope to duplicate the feat on Monday.
