DeLand, Fla. - Senior Njal Stene (Oslo, Norway), junior Didrik Berg (Oslo, Norway) and freshman Chester Espie (Auckland, New Zealand) were all double winners on the day as the 59th-ranked Stetson men's tennis team (9-2) picked up a 6-1 home victory over Youngstown State (5-6) Wednesday at the Mandy Stoll Tennis Center.

The Hatters gained the doubles point when Espie and senior Maksim Levanovich (Minsk, Belarus) won 8-3 over Max Schmerin and Rodrigo Campos on Court 2 and the Berg/Stene pair followed with an 8-5 Court 1 victory against Tariq Ismail and Dawoud Kabli.

Leading 1-0 heading into singles play, Stetson quickly buried the Penguins with five straight-set victories. Stene moved up to the top of the lineup, giving Levanovich a half day off, and rolled past Ismail 6-0, 6-3 to make it 2-0 Hatters. Freshman Nathan Debut (Toulon, France) then put Stetson on the doorstep of victory with a 6-3, 6-2 Court 4 win over Kabli and Espie nailed down the clinching point by beating Zeeshan Ismail 6-2, 6-2 on Court 5.

Berg and sophomore Hans Adrian Riseng (Oslo, Norway) also won in straight sets to give Stetson its fifth and sixth points. A tie-breaker in lieu of a third set on Court 6 put Youngstown State on the scoreboard and made the final score 6-1.

"Our team responded well to a good challenge from Youngstown State today," Stetson Director of Tennis Pierre Pilote said. "Njal stepped right in for Max (Levanovich) to give him some needed rest and he played a great match at #1 for us."

The Hatters continue their busy home week when Bradley comes to the Mandy Stoll Tennis Center for a 2:30 pm Friday match. Live Scoring will be available at GoHatters.com.

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