DeLand, Fla. ? The 65th-ranked Stetson men's tennis team (6-3) saw its four-match overall winning streak and its 19-match home win streak both end Saturday afternoon in a 5-2 loss to Florida Atlantic (8-3) at the Mandy Stoll Tennis Center. Head Coach Pierre Pilote was denied in his first attempt at his 300th career victory. Freshman Cesare Gallo (Portogruaro, Italy) won both his singles and doubles matches for the Hatters.
Gallo teamed with junior Mark Mestan (Cologne, Germany) to help pick up the doubles point with an 8-5 win over Lawrence Harradine and Santiago Nieto at the #3 slot. Gallo was the only Hatter to win a singles match, stopping Nieto in a three-set tiebraker battle by a 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 score. Senior Filip Kricka (Umag, Croatia) and freshman Maksim Levanovich (Minsk, Belarus) beat Daniel Vardag and Joshua Scholl 8-3 at #2 doubles.
Kricka took on the nation's 77th-ranked player in #1 singles, losing 6-2, 6-2 to FAU's Marc Abdelnour. The Hatters had not lost a home match since falling to 56th-ranked ETSU on March 17, 2007.
The Hatters look to start a new win streak and get Coach Pilote to the 300-win plateau Wednesday at the Mandy Stoll Tennis Center against Lehigh. The match begins at 4 p.m.
