The Stetson men's tennis team defeated Lipscomb to remain undefeated on the season Saturday at the Mandy Stoll Tennis Center. The Hatters (10-0) defeated the Bisons (3-8) by a score of 4-3, improving to 2-0 in Atlantic Sun Conference play.

"Lipscomb gave us everything they had today, playing their best match to date," Stetson Director of Tennis Pierre Pilote said. "I don't remember ever having such a young squad in our singles line-up but they played like veterans today."

Freshman Laurynas Antropikas and senior Hans Adrian Riseng opened doubles play by cruising to an 8-4 win at the number one position.  After sophomores Chester Espie and Nathan Debut fell for the first time as a doubles pair, losing 8-4 at the number three position, it came down senior Didrik Berg and freshman Simon Julin.

The duo, who were an undefeated 4-0 coming in to Saturday's match, led Stuart Tierney and Miguel Cortez from the start, but the Bison pair never gave up.  They came back to tie the match at 7-7 before Berg and Julin won two straight games to earn the 9-7 victory and give the Hatters a 1-0 lead after winning the doubles point for the fifth straight match.

As singles play began both team picked up an early victory as Debut won 6-2, 6-2 at the number six position, and Lipscomb's Daniel Hernandez handed freshman Cahit Kapukiran his first loss of the season, winning 6-2, 6-2 at number three to make it 2-1 in favor of the Hatters.

After Stuart Tierney topped freshman Egor Panyushkin 7-5, 6-0 at number four singles to tie the match at 2-2, Julin put the Hatters back on top 3-2 with a 6-4, 6-4 victory at number two to improve to 10-0 in singles this season.

With two matches left to be finished, both Antropikas and Espie were in third sets with a chance to clinch the victory.  The former, playing number one singles for the first time, eventually came out victorious, 6-3, 0-6, 6-3 to secure the win and keep the Hatters undefeated at 10-0.  Miguel Cortez topped Espie 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 to snap the sophomore's record setting streak of 21 straight wins.

Stetson will now prepare for a non-conference match against #17 Drake on Monday.  The match is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. at the Mandy Stoll Tennis Center.

"To be 10-0 going into our Drake match is fantastic," Pilote said.  "At number 17, Drake will be the highest ranked team we have ever hosted at Stetson."