Over the weekend Stetson’s Tennis Club traveled to Wesley Chapel to compete in the West Coast Invite hosted at Hillsborough Community College. At the event the Hatters faced off against Florida Gulf Coast University, University of South Florida, University of Florida and the University of Central Florida. The Hatters’ first match was against FGCU-A, in which they lost all matches except the men’s single by Logan Reid. In their second match, the Hatters played USF-C and won.  The third match was against UF-A.  The Hatters beat the Gators in overall points to win the match, but the match was sent into overtime when the Gators forced the mixed doubles match into a tiebreak.  On service, Dan Lozada ended the match by being broke, but the Hatters won the match by point winning 29-23. The results from the second day placed the Hatters second in their pool, putting them in a good draw for the second day of the tournament.

            The first opponent in the knockout stage was FGCU-C, with the Hatters winning all but the men’s doubles match they advanced to the quarterfinals.  In the quarterfinals, the Hatters faced off against UCF-A.  UCF-A won both men’s (5-6) and women’s (4-6) doubles.  Logan Reid (6-3) and Kali Ballard (6-3) won their singles match for Stetson putting the pressure on mixed doubles for the win. The team of Dan Lozada and Erin Davis lost in a sudden death tie break (5-6), but Stetson won the overall total points, advancing to the semi-finals of the tournament.  In the semi-finals the Hatters faced UF-A, losing and ending their run in the tournament.  This was the best showing for Stetson Club Tennis, with more tournaments to come.