DeLand, Fla. ? Stetson University head men's tennis coach Pierre Pilote picked up his 300th career victory on Wednesday as his 69th-ranked Hatters (7-3) blanked Lehigh 7-0 at the Mandy Stoll Tennis Center. Pilote's career record is 300-96 in 16 years at Stetson. Five different Hatters were double winners on the day.
Senior Filip Kricka (Umag, Croatia), junior Mark Mestan (Cologne, Germany) and freshmen Cesare Gallo (Portogruaro, Italy), Maksim Levanovich (Minsk, Belarus) and Njal Stene (Oslo, Norway) all won singles and doubles matches for Stetson.
No Hatter dropped a set in singles play with Levanovich recording a perfect 6-0, 6-0 win over Lehigh's Chris Collins at #4 singles. Mestan only dropped two games in his match, a 6-2, 6-0 #2 singles victory over Collin Laffey. Mestan and Gallo teamed up for an 8-0 shutout of Collins and Ryan Krueger at #3 doubles.
Pilote has led the Hatters to 14 consecutive winning seasons, four 20+ win seasons in the last six years, five wins over Top 75 teams since 2007 and three consecutive Atlantic Sun conference tournament finals appearances.
After the match, Pilote and the Hatters took a special team picture, commemorating the achievement. Stetson returns to the court Friday at 2 p.m. when it travels to Jacksonville to take on the JU Dolphins in an A-Sun match.
