Johnson City, Tenn. ? The second-seeded Stetson men's tennis team (18-7) suffered its fourth consecutive loss in an Atlantic Sun Conference championship final match, dropping a 4-2 decision to 57th-ranked ETSU, the host and top seed for the tournament, Saturday afternoon at the Buddy Hartsell Tennis Center. A-Sun All-Freshman team selection Maksim Levanovich (Minsk, Belarus) was a double winner for the Hatters, who have fallen to ETSU in the finals three years running. Levanovich joined senior Filip Kricka (Umag, Croatia) and junior Mark Mestan (Cologne, Germany) as Stetson representatives on the All-Tournament Team.
The Hatters took the doubles point to jump out to a 1-0 lead, getting wins from Kricka and Mestan over Grega Teraz and Charles Bottoni 9-8 (7-4) and from the Levanovich/Cesare Gallo (Portogruaro, Italy) duo against Robin Akser and Daniel Isaza 8-3 at #2 and #3 respectively.
Stetson would only pick up one more point, however, that coming from Levanovich and his 7-6 (4), 6-2 win over Teraz and #3 singles. Kricka put up a good fight against ETSU star Enrique Olivares, battling the nation's 13th-ranked individual into a third set before finally succumbing. The Buccaneers added three more straight-set singles wins to clinch their third consecutive conference championship and NCAA Tournament appearance.
In addition to the Hatter trio and A-Sun Tournament MVP Olivares, the All-Tournament Team also featured Akser and ETSU's Sander Gille.
Six of the seven players that suited up for Stetson in the A-Sun tournament are slated to return next spring, including Gallo, Levanovich and Stene, all A-Sun All-Freshman honorees. The 2009 season will be remembered as yet another successful campaign for Head Coach Pierre Pilote and his squad. Pilote passed the 300 career victory milestone during the spring of 2009.
