Johnson City, Tenn. ? The second-seeded Stetson men's tennis team (18-6) earned the right to play in its fourth consecutive Atlantic Sun Conference championship match by outlasting third-seeded Belmont (14-8) 4-2 in the semifinals Friday evening at the Buddy Hartsell Tennis Center on the ETSU campus. Junior Mark Mestan (Cologne, Germany) and freshman Cesare Gallo (Portogruaro, Italy) clinched key points and were double winners for the Hatters, who will take on top-seeded and 57th-ranked host ETSU for the championship tomorrow afternoon.
After Mestan and senior Filip Kricka (Umag, Croatia) dropped Joao Paoliello and Felipe Cirne Lima 8-4 at #2 doubles, the Bruins got a win back at the #1 position to make the #3 match decide the doubles point. Gallo and freshman Maksim Levanovich (Minsk, Belarus), both Atlantic Sun All-Freshman Team honorees, came through with a huge 9-8 victory over Javier Rodriguez and Rafael Matos to put Stetson ahead 1-0 heading into the singles portion of the proceedings.
Sophomore Gokay Celik (Istanbul, Turkey) earned a 6-4, 6-4 win over Matos at #6 singles to extend the lead to 2-0, but all the remaining matches went into third sets as Belmont refused to go down without a fight. Gallo did his part by beating Renato Antun 6-3, 6-7, 6-1 in the #5 slot, but the Bruins took two matches by similar scores to cut the lead to 3-2. It was Mestan that ultimately clinched the win for the Hatters, rallying from a set down to avenge a regular season loss to Paoliello with a 4-6, 7-6, 7-5 triumph at #2 singles. The final match was left unfinished with the outcome decided in Stetson's favor.
“I knew I had a close match against [Paoliello] the last time and today I was just trying to stay focused and play my best tennis even though it was getting very dark out there towards the end of the match,” Mestan said afterwards.
The Hatters will be attempting to make the third time the charm as they have lost 4-0 to the powerful Buccaneers and A-Sun Player of the Year Enrique Olivares in the finals each of the past two seasons; Stetson also lost 4-2 to Belmont in the 2006 championship. Stetson will be shooting for the first conference championship and NCAA Tournament berth in program history tomorrow at 1 p.m.
