DeLand, Fla. - The Stetson men's tennis team (1-0) started its spring season with
a win, defeating MEAC dynasty South Carolina State 4-3 on Sunday afternoon at the Mandy
Stoll Tennis Center.
The Hatters got off to a strong start by taking the doubles point
to begin the day. On Court 1, Njal Stene (Oslo, Norway) and Didrik Berg (Oslo,
Norway) defeated Peteris Vinogradous and Artemiy Nikitin 8-5. Hans Adrian Riseng (Oslo, Norway) and Nathan Debut (Toulon, France) followed up with a win
of their own, downing Thomas Bizon and Young Kwan Lee 8-6.
The final doubles point was taken by S.C. State 9-8 with
Stetson's Maksim Levanovich (Minsk, Belarus) and Chester Espie (Auckland, New Zealand) falling to Dmytro Kovalevych and
Anton Protsenko.
In singles, Riseng got the Hatters off to a strong start
with a 6-2, 6-3 victory on Court 4 against Bizon. Levanovich battled hard on Court 1, taking his match in straight sets, 6-1, 7-6 over
Kovalevych.
Didrik Berg sealed the Stetson victory with a 7-6, 7-6
victory on Court 3 over Vinogradous. The junior knew going into the day that
the Hatters would face tough competition as the Bulldogs have captured seven of the last eight MEAC championships.
“We knew from the start it was going to be a tough match,”
Berg said. “Seeing from the scoreboard, it was tough for everyone. I am proud
to be on this team, and everybody fought to death and gave us the result we
wanted.”
Head Coach Pierre Pilote was proud of the team's effort,
especially given the tough opponent they were playing against.
“They played well, and it was good to see them play against
a tough opponent like this,” Pilote said. “Playing an opponent like this will
help them get ready for Arkansas next week.”
South Carolina State won two singles matches on the day.
Espie lost to Nikitin at No. 5 singles 6-2, 6-2 and Debut lost to Kwan 6-3,
0-6, 5-7 in the only three-set match of the day.
The Hatters are on the road this week, taking on Flagler
(Feb. 7), Oral Roberts (Feb. 11) and Arkansas (Feb. 12), with the later matches
scheduled to be played in Fayetteville, Ark.
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