Johnson City, Tenn. - Atlantic Sun Conference rival ETSU (5-8, 3-0 Atlantic Sun) handed the 71st-ranked Stetson men's tennis team (11-3, 2-1 A-Sun) its first league setback of the season Friday at the Buddy Hartsell Tennis Center, defeating the Hatters 5-0. Two singles matches were left unfinished. The loss snapped Stetson's five-match winning streak.

The day started off promising for Stetson as senior Maksim Levanovich (Minsk, Belarus) and freshman Chester Espie (Auckland, New Zealand) beat ETSU's Jeremy Bonevalle and Juan Ramirez 8-2 on Court 2 in doubles, but the Buccaneers would take the other two matches to go up 1-0 on the scoreboard. Jesus Bandres and Roger Ribeiro narrowly evaded junior Didrik Berg (Oslo, Norway) and freshman Nathan Debut (Toulon, France) 9-7 on Court 3 for the clinching point.

The host Bucs showed the singles form that has won them five consecutive A-Sun championships, taking four of those matches in straight sets for the final margin of victory. Levanovich on Court 1 and Espie on Court 6 had their matches left unfinished due to time constraints.

Stetson remains on the road for a 10:00 am A-Sun match tomorrow morning at USC Upstate before returning home to host in-state conference rival Jacksonville at noon Thursday, March 29.

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