DeLand, Fla. ? Faced with the disappointment of losing its national ranking for the first time since February 2008, the Stetson men's tennis team (10-3) made visiting Eastern Kentucky (8-6) pay the price on Wednesday in a 7-0 Hatter sweep of the Colonels at the Mandy Stoll Tennis Center.  Five Hatters were double winners in a dominating effort.

Stetson won the three doubles matches by an aggregate score of 24 games to eight and let only one singles match go to a tiebreaker.  Senior Filip Kricka (Umag, Croatia) won that match 1-6, 6-3, 1-0 (6) over Alex Das Izquierdo.  Junior Mark Mestan (Cologne, Germany) and sophomore Gokay Celik (Istanbul, Turkey) each earned a perfect 6-0 set victory in the course of their match wins.

The Hatters step back into conference play on Friday, looking to continue their perfect 3-0 start to the league schedule when they travel to Campbell for a 2 p.m. match.  The match is the nightcap of a Stetson-Campbell tennis doubleheader as the women's squads will face off at 10 a.m. in Buies Creek, N.C.