Johnson City, Tenn. ? The Stetson men's tennis team, the #2 seed in this week's Atlantic Sun Conference Championships, got its postseason off to a strong start with a 4-0 sweep of seventh-seeded Lipscomb in a quarterfinal match Thursday at the Buddy Hartsell Tennis Complex on the ETSU campus.  First Team All-Conference senior Filip Kricka (Umag, Croatia) and All-Freshman Team rookie Maksim Levanovich (Minsk, Belarus) were double winners for the Hatters, who improved to 17-6 on the year.

Kricka and junior Mark Mestan (Cologne, Germany) pounded James Murrell and Chad Pierron 8-2 at #2 doubles while Levanovich and fellow All-Freshman team honoree Cesare Gallo (Portogruaro, Italy) did the exact same to Andy Mizell and Joe McArdle at #3 doubles.

With a 1-0 lead in tow heading into the singles matches, Stetson needed just three quick straight-set wins to end the match early and got them from Kricka, Levanovich and its third All-Freshman Team pick, Njal Stene (Oslo, Norway).  Kricka beat McArdle 6-1, 6-1 at the top of the lineup, Levanovich dismissed Pierron 6-1, 6-0 at the #3 slot and Stene downed Bruno Melibeu 6-3, 6-1 at the #4 position.

The win over the Bisons (6-15) advances the Hatters to tomorrow's semifinals, where they will take on third-seeded Belmont at 4:30 p.m.  The Bruins swept sixth-seeded Mercer 4-0 in their quarterfinal match this afternoon.  Stetson has now advanced to the A-Sun semifinals four years in a row and in seven of the last 10 years.