JACKSONVILLE – For the second consecutive season, the Stetson Hatters are heading to the Atlantic Sun Conference Championship Final after a thrilling 4-3 semifinal victory over FGCU on Friday afternoon.
The deciding point came from senior Sami Ozzor on Court 6, who clinched the match with a gritty third-set tiebreaker win, sending the Hatters to the final.
Stetson set the tone early in doubles play. Xavier Sarda and Haris Eminefendic cruised to a 6-1 win on Court 3, but the doubles point came down to Court 1. All-Conference duo Eder Blanco and Christian Kuehne battled through a tiebreaker, ultimately sealing a 7-5 victory to give Stetson the early 1-0 lead.
Eminefendic carried that momentum into singles, delivering a dominant 6-3, 6-2 win on Court 5 to extend the Hatters' lead to 2-0. FGCU responded by taking Courts 2 and 4, evening the match at 2-2.
Team captain Eder Blanco stepped up once again, grinding out a hard-fought 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 victory over Hugo Magnusson on Court 1 to put Stetson back in front. But after a loss on Court 3, the match was knotted at 3-3.
It all came down to Ozzor on Court 6. After dropping the second set, the senior held his nerve in a dramatic third-set tiebreak, pulling away 7-1 to clinch the win and punch Stetson's ticket to the championship final.
DOUBLES
#1 Blanco, Eder / Kuehne, Christian [STETSON] def. Hugo Magnusson / Jonathan Baron [FGCU] 77-65
#2 Guglielmo Stefanacci / Pablo Paternostro [FGCU] def. Saura, Marc / Olivier, Lucas [STETSON] 6-3
#3 Sarda Marti, Xavier / Haris Eminefendic, Ervin [STETSON] def. Stavros Hadjivarnava / Harry Michalowski [FGCU] 6-1
Order of Finish: 3, 2, 1
SINGLES
#1 Blanco, Eder [STETSON] def. Hugo Magnusson [FGCU] 6-4, 3-6, 6-4
#2 Jonathan Baron [FGCU] def. Kuehne, Christian [STETSON] 6-4, 6-3
#3 Guglielmo Stefanacci [FGCU] def. Olivier, Lucas [STETSON] 6-3, 4-6, 6-2
#4 Pablo Paternostro [FGCU] def. Sarda Marti, Xavier [STETSON] 0-6, 6-3, 6-4
#5 Haris Eminefendic, Ervin [STETSON] def. Ninad Raut [FGCU] 6-3, 6-2
#6 Ozzor, Sami [STETSON] def. CJ Smith [FGCU] 6-3, 4-6, 77-61
Order of Finish: 5, 2, 4, 1, 3, 6
WORDS FROM SAMI OZZOR
"First, I'm so proud of this team, what we're doing day in and day out. It's not what you see here, it's what we do in DeLand and that's where we make the difference and I think that's what we saw today. I'm just really proud of everyone that was here involved and nice to do it again tomorrow."
WORDS FROM HEAD COACH CHRISTOPHE NOBLET
"Credit to FGCU for really making it a fight up until literally the last point of the match, it takes two to tango and great effort from them but unbelievable response from us to overcome adversity on so many courts. I mean, talk about the double that came down to a breaker on 1, the last match that came down to a breaker, I think it was just two big ASUN rivals going at each other, giving everything they got, I'm unbelievably of the boys for pushing through, for being tough under pressure, for being calm under pressure. Thanks to everyone who made the trip up, we're going to need all the support and more in the Finals tomorrow."
NEXT UP
The Hatters look for their first conference tournament victory as they will face the North Alabama Lions in the ASUN Championship Finals on Saturday morning at 10:00 AM at the UNF Tennis Complex.
