Macon, Ga. - Third sets and tiebreakers were not kind to the Stetson men's tennis team (10-5, 2-2 Atlantic Sun) on Friday in a 5-2 loss at A-Sun rival Mercer (5-6, 2-1 A-Sun).  Key points eluded the Hatters in three different late-match situations where two wins would have swung the match for Stetson.  Junior Njal Stene (Oslo, Norway) was a double winner on the day for the Hatters.

Stene and Swanteson defeated David Barton and Pierre Tafelski 9-7 at #2 doubles, but the Bears would come away with the opening point as Fernando Armendaris and Guilherme Frias defeated senior Alex Hackett (Surrey, England) and freshman Hans Adrian Riseng (Oslo, Norway) 8-6 at the #3 position and the Cesare Gallo (Portogruaro, Italy)/Didrik Berg (Oslo, Norway) tandem was edged 9-8 (8-6) in a tiebreaker on Court 1 by Evandro Rosindo and Peter Tauchner.

Stene beat Tauchner 6-2, 6-2 at #2 singles and Berg followed suit with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Rosindo on Court 3, but that was as close as the Hatters would come.  Gallo and Riseng both came up on the short ends of 7-5 third set scores as Mercer defeated Stetson for the first time since 2005.

The Hatters will try to bounce back tomorrow at A-Sun foe Kennesaw State.  The match begins at 10 a.m. and will precede the Stetson-KSU women's match set for 2 p.m.