DELAND, Fla. – Stetson Men's Tennis split a pair of results, losing to a strong Florida Atlantic squad, 4-1, and picking a win over a scrappy Mercer side, 6-1, both events at Mandy Stoll Tennis Center this weekend.
The Hatters (7-2) picked up its first loss on home court when FAU took the match, before bouncing back with a win over the Bears to improve to 5-1 at Mandy Stoll.
"FAU was the better team today," head coach
Christophe Noblet said "They got a quick point from doubles and from there they took a lot of early leads in singles courts. We were running from behind, but we fought back and would have been fun to get into a few more three-setters to play them closer by the end. I thought that we had our chances on a couple of courts but praise to them [FAU]. I think we respected them [their skill] too much [coming in] but I wanted us to be more aggressive in doubles and also how we displayed ourselves, so we have to do that part better. If we want to get big wins against quality teams, we have to attack, play into our identity and be completely fearless."
Ervin Haris Eminefendic was the star of the Hatters on Friday. Playing a clinch-clinch format where the first team to four wins overall, and the first two doubles courts wins the doubles, the Hatters were against a stacked Owl team. The visitors picked up the doubles point, before Eminefendic tied the match, finishing his singles match first from the court-three position defeating Alberti Cikas Sanchez and tying the game at 1-1. While the guests took the next three courts, and as a result the match,
Lucas Olivier was still battling on court 2 with
Alexandre Hillhouse up a set on court 6.
The Hats would turn the Saturday match in their favor. Opting to play singles first due to potential weather interference in the forecast, Ozzor was the first point of the day winning on court 5, 6-4,6-1, over Andrew Branicki.
Alexandre Hillhouse notched the next point from court 6 [6-3,6-3]. Juan Jose Rodriguez took his first set 6-3, before fending off a tenacious Lucas Dini in set two, 7-6.
Lucas Olivier took down Mariano Argote, 6-3, 7-5, before Eminefendic picked up his second singles win of the weekend, 6-4, 6-4 over Samuel MacLeod. Nemanja Stefanovic and
Marc Saura battled back-and-forth in the longest singles match of the afternoon, clocking in at over 90 minutes with the agile and determined Spaniard grabbing the win 2-6, 7-5, 1-0.
"Proud of the way the guys bounced back from yesterday's loss," Noblet said after the win on Saturday "It's very important that when you have a bit of a setback that you turn it around quickly, learn from it and apply yourself right away on the next opportunity and the guys certainly did that today. I was pleased with them pushing through to bounce back and looking to always learn. I think that is important for this young group to eagerly learn and they certainly are, which I am very pleased with. Good showing of maturity today after a bit of a disappointing match yesterday against a very good FAU team. I thought we were pretty dominant in singles play, showed maturity, commitment and overall a good win against Mercer."
Stetson will now go on the road for the next three contests, including the ASUN opener, but up next is a pair of matches at Statesboro, Georgia against South Carolina State on Saturday at noon with the contest against the hometown Georgia Southern Eagles the following day at 1 p.m. More information, like live streaming and live stats, will be made available as it is released, continue to check the Men's Tennis schedule page for updated links.
About Stetson University Athletics: Stetson University's Athletics Program is driven by a shared purpose. It is what inspires, motivates and binds us together. More than a task, a reason for being. THE HATTER PURPOSE is to create and provide an experience of a lifetime through teamwork and relationships to achieve excellence. This purpose is achieved through five Core Values: Communication, Integrity, Excellence, Value People and Commitment. To learn more about the HATS program and our Core Values, visit GoHatters.com/HATS (PDF).
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