DeLand, Fla. - Both the Stetson men's and women's tennis teams achieved identical 6-1 wins over visiting Mercer in an Atlantic Sun Conference doubleheader at the Mandy Stoll Tennis Center on Saturday. The Hatter men, ranked 70th nationally, improved to 16-3 overall and 7-1 in the A-Sun while the women jumped to 14-5, 6-2 A-Sun.
The men's match in the morning saw Stetson take all three doubles matches and then roll to five straight singles victories, each in straight sets, to wrap up the win. Sophomores Cesare Gallo (Portogruaro, Italy) and Maksim Levanovich (Minsk, Belarus) won their matchups with just four lost games each while freshman Didrik Berg (Oslo, Norway) picked up a comfortable 6-3, 6-2 win of his own. The loss dropped Mercer to 7-8 overall and 1-5 in the conference.
The women celebrated Senior Day in the afternoon for their five upperclassmen and saw their match proceed in exactly the same manner as their male counterparts. Junior Unnati Purushotham (Hyderabad, India) blanked Priscilla Dias 6-0, 6-0 at #4 singles while senior Breanna Atkinson (Bradenton, Fla.) and freshman Carolina de los Santos (Montevideo, Uruguay) each lost only one game in cleaning out their Bear opponents. Senior Natalie Gorham (Miami, Fla.) closed her home regular season career out with a 6-4, 6-0 win over Sarah Hanna at #6 singles. The Mercer women are now 5-7 overall and 1-6 in the A-Sun.
The Stetson men's team hosts Niagara (2 p.m.) and Oberlin (6 p.m.) in a doubleheader on Monday while the women will be off until traveling to USC Upstate for an important A-Sun showdown on Thursday, April 1. The Hatter men visit the Spartans the same day.
