Friday, April 20, 2007

Johnson City, Tenn. - Atlantic Sun Player of the Year, Hicham Laalej, and No. 2 seed Stetson beat the seventh-seeded Mercer Bears 4-0 on Friday afternoon to advance to the semifinals.

The Hatters won both closely contested doubles matches by scores of 9-7 and 8-5. A-Sun Player of the Year, Hicham Laalej beat Tobias Ohrstrom 7-5, 6-5. Stetson's No. 2 player, Filip Kricka bounced Patrick Russo 6-2, 6-3. Finishing off the Bears was the Hatters No. 4 player, Joey Jones. Jones defeated Nathan Starr 6-0, 6-3.

Stetson moves on to play t he winner of No. 3 Campbell and No. 6 Belmont at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday.

Doubles
No. 1 Echtler/Kricka (Stetson) def. Ohrstrom/Russo (Mercer) - 9-7
No. 2 Jones/Boulanov (Stetson) def. Starr/Poleon (Mercer) - 8-5
No. 3 Laalej/Dzuba (Stetson) vs. Gil/Mitchell (Mercer) - DNF

Singles
No. 1 Hicham Laalej (Stetson) def. Tobias Ohrstrom (Mercer) - 7-5, 6-3
No. 2 Filip Kricka (Stetson) def. Patrick Russo (Mercer) - 6-2, 6-3
No. 3 Serguei Boulanov (Stetson) vs. Mario Gil (Mer) - DNF
No 4 Joey Jones (Stetson) def. Nathan Starr (Mer) - 6-0, 6-3
No 5 Daniel Stamp (Stetson) vs. Matthew Poleon (Mer) - DNF
No 6 Peter Dzuba (Stetson) vs. Chapman Mitchell (Mer) - DNF