Daytona Beach, Fla. - The Stetson men's tennis team (1-0) opened its 2011 dual match season on Tuesday with a 6-1 win at Volusia County rival Bethune-Cookman (0-2).  Five Hatters were double winners on the day, including the nationally 42nd-ranked doubles duo of juniors Maksim Levanovich (Minsk, Belarus) and Njal Stene (Oslo, Norway).

Levanovich and Stene blanked Jeff Smallwood and Emil Vassilev 8-0 at #1 doubles; 8-3 and 8-6 wins for the other two Hatter pairs were more than sufficient to give Stetson the doubles point.  Four of Stetson's five singles victories came in straight sets, including a 6-1, 6-1 win for Levanovich over Marc Misanovic on Court 1 and a 6-0, 6-3 victory by sophomore Didrik Berg (Oslo, Norway) on Court 4 over B-CU's Kristofer Martin.  Other double winners for Stetson were Stene, senior Alex Hackett (Surrey, England) and sophomore Erik Halaj (Hoover, Ala.).

The Hatters travel to Bethlehem, Pa. for four matches this weekend.  They face host Lehigh at 11 a.m. Friday, Monmouth at 4 p.m. Friday, Georgetown at 4 p.m. Saturday and Lafayette at 10 a.m. Sunday.