Mercer Men Advance to SoCon Championship Semifinals

Thursday, April 18

Macon, Ga.

3 p.m.

Mercer University

Chattanooga

Photo by: Todd Drexler

Mercer Men Advance to SoCon Championship Semifinals

4/18/2019 7:07:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Sixth-seeded Bears defeat No. 3 Chattanooga, 4-1

By: Gerrit W. Van Genderen

MACON, Ga. – The Mercer men's tennis team rallied after dropping the doubles point to earn a 4-1 victory over No. 3-seeded Chattanooga in the 2019 Southern Conference Championship quarterfinals on Thursday at the John Drew Smith Tennis Center.

No. 6-seeded Mercer (11-14) will now face No. 2 Furman at 2 p.m. Friday in the semifinals. The Paladins defeated UNCG, 4-0, in the quarterfinals on Thursday.

Despite a 7-5 win by Olivier Stuart and Nicolas Guillon in flight one of the doubles point, Mercer entered singles play trailing, 1-0. The Bears handled business in singles play, however, winning on courts one, four, five and six to advance to the semifinals.

Stuart improved to 19-5 overall with a straight-sets win (6-2, 6-1) in flight one to tie the match, 1-1. Fernando Guardia and Carver Arant followed Stuart with a pair of three-set wins to set up the match-clinching win by David Georgadze in flight four.

Doubles (Order of Finish: 3,1,2)
1. Olivier Stuart/Nicolas Guillon (MER) def. Kerim Hyatt/Simon Bustamante (UTC), 7-5
2. Niklas Gerdes/Tomas Rodriguez (UTC) def. Stathis Tsiranidis/David Georgadze (MER), 7-6
3. Pablo Llebeili/Luke Plaisted (UTC) def. Fernando Guardia/Carver Arant (MER), 6-3

Singles (Order of Finish: 1,6,4,5)
1. Olivier Stuart (MER) def. Niklas Gerdes (UTC), 6-2, 6-1
2. Nicolas Guillon (MER) vs. Tomas Rodriguez (UTC), 2-6, 6-4, 0-1 (unfinished)
3. Stathis Tsiranidis (MER) vs. Kerim Hyatt (UTC) 4-6, 6-4, 3-2 (unfinished)
4. Carver Arant (MER) def. Simon Bustamente (UTC), 3-6, 6-3, 6-1
5. David Georgadze (MER) def. Luke Plaisted (UTC), 6-3, 4-6, 6-1
6. Fernando Guardia (MER) def. Jacob Marshall (UTC), 4-6, 6-4, 6-2

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