Statesboro, Ga. - The 70th-ranked Stetson men's tennis team improved to 7-2 on the season with a 6-1 victory over host Georgia Southern (1-11) on Saturday at the Hanner Tennis Complex. Four Hatters were double winners on the day; Stetson's second scheduled match this weekend in Satesboro, vs. Georgia State, was cancelled due to inclement weather.

Stetson had to work hard to take the doubles point as a quick 8-1 victory by sophomore Maksim Levanovich (Minsk, Belarus) and freshman Chester Espie (Auckland, New Zealand) on Court 2 was followed by an 8-5 Eagles victory on Court 1. That left Court 3 as the deciding match where junior Didrik Berg (Oslo, Norway) and freshman Nathan Debut (Toulon, France) came through for the Hatters with an 8-6 triumph over Albert Codina Sala and Kyle Hoffman.

Up 1-0 heading into singles, the Hatters made short work of their hosts in one-on-one competition. Espie pitched a 6-0, 6-0 shutout against Sebastien Felt on Court 6 to set the tone, which was followed in short order by a 6-2, 6-3 win for senior Njal Stene (Oslo, Norway) on Court 2 vs. Hoffman and a 6-1, 6-3 Court 1 win for Levanovich over Alain Garrido. Those victories made it 4-0 Stetson on the scoreboard and clinched the match.

Berg defeated Codina Sala 6-3, 6-2 on Court 3 and Debut outlasted Daniel Rush by a 7-6, 6-2 margin on Court 5 to add to Stetson's total; only a tie-breaker win for Andrew Dromsky on Court 4 against sophomore Hans Adrian Riseng (Oslo, Norway) prevented a shutout victory for the Hatters.

The Hatters return home to take on Cleveland State at 2:30 pm Tuesday at the Mandy Stoll Tennis Center. Live Scoring will be available at GoHatters.com.

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