DeLand, Fla. - Freshman Nathan Debut (Toulon, France) won the final match of the day on Court 6 by a 5-7, 6-3, 6-1 score over Temuera Asafu-Adjaye to give the Stetson men's tennis team (4-1) a 4-3 victory over visiting Florida A&M (4-5) Saturday afternoon at the Mandy Stoll Tennis Center.

Debut was down 0-1 in the third set when he was able to break Asafu-Adjaye's serve and take the game, setting the tone for the remainder of the match. Debut went on to win the final six games of the third set.

"Our conditioning program was a key factor in Nathan's match-clinching three set victory," Director of Tennis Pierre Pilote said.

In the singles matches, it was the #4, #5 and #6 players that got the job done for the Hatters. Sophomore Hans Adrian Riseng (Oslo, Norway) won 6-4, 6-0 over Chidi Gabriel, finishing first. Freshman Chester Espie (Auckland, New Zealand) on Court 5 finished third and defeated Fabrice Myrtil 6-2, 6-1. Debut's match was the final one and gave the Hatters the win.

"This was a great team effort today. It was nice to see our 4-5-6 play such an important role in today's outcome," Pilote said afterwards.

The Hatters got off to a good start by taking the doubles point. Debut and junior Didrik Berg (Oslo, Norway) defeated Gabriel and Asafu-Adjaye, 8-4 on Court 3. Senior Maksim Levanovich (Minsk, Belarus) and Espie won their Court 2 match 8-4 over Myrtil and Takura Happy to give the Hatters a 1-0 overall lead.

The Hatters have a lengthy break before they open Atlantic Sun Conference play at home at 2:00 pm Saturday, March 3 against Kennesaw State.

FACEBOOK - Stetson Athletics (facebook.com/stetsonhatters); TWITTER - @StetsonSID (twitter.com/stetsonsid)