ORLANDO - The Stetson men's tennis team competed in the UCF Invitational this past weekend at the USTA National Campus, facing tough competition from the Florida Atlantic Owls on Friday and the South Florida Bulls on Saturday. Unfortunately, Sunday's match against UCF was rained out, echoing last season when the matchup was also canceled due to inclement weather. Despite this, the Hatters put up a solid performance against both FAU and USF, with several players notching key victories.

FAU began the spring season against Stetson last year, where the Hatters fell 0-7. However, this time, Stetson secured two singles wins and two doubles victories against FAU. Senior Eder Blanco defeated Jiri Jenicek in a tightly contested three-setter (6-4, 3-6, 7-5), while Lucas Olivier also earned a straight-set win (6-4, 6-4) in singles. The doubles pairs of Christian Kuehne/Eder Blanco and Ervin Haris Eminefendic/Sami Ozzor also triumphed.

Singles:

• Eder Blanco (Stetson) def. Jiri Jenicek (FAU): 6-4, 3-6, 7-5
• John Bernard (FAU) def. Christian Kuehne (Stetson): 6-3, 7-6(4)
• Lucas Olivier (Stetson) def. Jan Kusy (FAU): 6-4, 6-4
• Mark Havlicek (FAU) def. Ervin Haris Eminefendic (Stetson): 7-6(3), 6-2
• Simon Myslivec (FAU) def. Xavier Sarda (Stetson): 6-2, 2-6, 6-2
• Luca Miremont (FAU) def. Sami Ozzor (Stetson): 6-4, 7-6(5)
• Segundo Goity (FAU) def. Marc Saura (Stetson): 6-3, 6-4
• Marek Pazdera (FAU) def. Juan Jose Rodriguez (Stetson): 7-6(1), 7-5

Doubles:

• Mark Havlicek/Jiri Jenicek (FAU) def. Marc Saura/Juan Jose Rodriguez (Stetson): 7-5
• Christian Kuehne/Eder Blanco (Stetson) def. Simon Myslivec/Jan Kusy (FAU): 6-3
• John Bernard/Lucca Pignaton (FAU) def. Xavier Sarda/Lucas Olivier (Stetson): 6-3
• Ervin Haris Eminefendic/Sami Ozzor (Stetson) def. Segundo Goity/Luca Miremont (FAU): 6-2

Saturday saw the Hatters improve with four singles wins over USF, including a standout performance from freshman Kartik Mandla, who won his first collegiate match in a three-set battle (6-7(5), 6-3, 6-1). Christian Kuehne, Lucas Olivier, and Xavier Sarda also added singles wins to the tally. Stetson's doubles teams continued their strong showing, splitting the matches 2-2.
 

Singles:

• Hugo Car (USF) def. Eder Blanco (Stetson): 6-3, 6-3
• Christian Kuehne (Stetson) def. Francisco Llanes (USF): 6-3, 7-6(3)
• Lucas Olivier (Stetson) def. Gughi Verdese (USF): 6-3, 6-2
• Ben Hudson (USF) def. Ervin Haris Eminefendic (Stetson): 1-6, 6-4, 6-4
• Xavier Sarda (Stetson) def. Ettore Danesi (USF): 6-3, 6-0
• Agustin Cuellar (USF) def. Sami Ozzor (Stetson): 3-6, 6-1, 6-4
• Tom Pavlekovich-Smith (USF) def. Juan Jose Rodriguez (Stetson): 7-5, 6-4
• Kartik Mandla (Stetson) def. Michael Chan (USF): 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-1

Doubles:

• Juan Jose Rodriguez/Marc Saura (Stetson) def. Ben Hudson/Tom Pavlekovich-Smith (USF): 6-4
• Hugo Car/Toto Llanes (USF) def. Eder Blanco/Christian Kuehne (Stetson): 6-3
• Gughi Verdese/Ettore Danesi (USF) def. Ervin Haris Eminefendic/Sami Ozzor (Stetson): 7-6(6)
• Lucas Olivier/Kartik Mandla (Stetson) def. Michael Chan/Agustin Cuellar (USF): 6-4

Head Coach Christophe Noblet praised the team's preparation and performance: "It was nice to see all our players compete this weekend. We were prepared and fared well against some high-quality opponents. Kudos to Kartik for winning his first collegiate matches. It is unfortunate we got rained out on Sunday, as we were looking forward to facing UCF players for this final day."

Looking ahead, the ITA Southeast Regional Tournament, originally scheduled for this week, has been moved to the University of Georgia and will now take place from Wednesday through Sunday next week.