HATTIESBURG, Miss.
- The Stetson men's tennis team finished day one of competition at the Southern
Miss Invitational in Hattiesburg on Friday. The Hatters competed in both
singles and doubles.
The Hatters faced off against players from South Alabama,
and Nicholls State in singles competition. South Alabama and Nicholls State were both ranked in the
top-100 last season, with South Alabama making it as high as #52, and Nicholls
State as high as #71.
"It was a very good day
for our young Hatters squad," Director of Tennis Pierre Pilote said. "They
performed very well against teams who were amongst the nation's best in
2012"
Early in the day, four
Hatters picked up singles wins. Laurynas Antropikas defeated Roy Knight
(Nicholls) 4-6, 6-2, 10-8. Simon Julin picked up a win, defeating Sidharth
Sivakumar (Nicholls) 6-3, 6-2. Chester Espie won his match, defeating Evan
Karatzas (Nicholls) 6-4, 6-2. Didrik Berg was also victorious, defeating Manel
Estruega (Nicholls) 6-3, 6-4.
Cahit Kapukiran fell to
Nico Mertens (Nicholls) 6-2, 6-1 and Egor Panyushkin was defeated by James
Russell (Nicholls) 6-1, 6-2.
In the second set of singles matches, the Hatters picked up
three more victories.
Egor Panyushkin defeated Blake Gregor (South Alabama) 6-2,
6-2 to pick up his first win of the day. Chester Espie won his second singles
match of the day, defeating Sebastian Kirmse (South Alabama) 6-1, 6-0. Hans
Adrian Riseng defeated Jan Hellmich (South Alabama) 6-0, 6-2.
Cahit Kapukiran fell to Daniel Leitner (South Alabama) 6-3,
6-2. Cody Hall (South Alabama) defeated Didrik Berg 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) and Laurynas
Antropikas lost his match, falling to Shayan Vaezzadeh (South Alabama) 6-4,
6-2.
“Our freshmen are learning
and are starting to play the Hatters way, " assistant coach
Christophe Noblet said. “They all
understand our proud history and what they have to live up to. They are
enjoying each moment and having fun with the challenge of keeping the program
moving up amongst the nations best"
The Hatters won two of their three doubles matches on Friday. Berg and Antropikas won 8-3 against Rob Lee (Lamar) and Inaki Belloso (Southern Miss.). Panyushkin and Espie defeated Bruno Snyder and Steven McMullan of Lamar. Kapukiran and Risen were less successful on Friday, falling to CarlPhilip Lindqvist and Mikko Rajamaki (Lamar) by a score of 8-2.
Stetson is back in action
on Saturday, starting play at 8:30 a.m.
