Bears Sweep ABAC To Notch First Win Of Season

Sunday, January 28

Macon, Ga.

3 p.m.

Mercer University

ABAC

Bears Sweep ABAC To Notch First Win Of Season

1/28/2024 7:24:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Todd Anderson, anderson_t02@mercer.edu

MACON – Junior Marceau Fouilhoux captured three-straight games in the second set to finish off a perfect day for the Mercer men's tennis team, and the Bears picked up their first win of the 2023-24 season with a convincing 7-0 triumph over visiting ABAC on Sunday afternoon at the Randy Stephens Tennis Center.

ABAC (0-1), listed fourth in the latest junior college rankings by the International Tennis Association (ITA), rolled into Macon with three nationally-ranked singles players, but picked up just 26 games across the six singles courts. The result snapped a season-opening four-match skid for the Orange & Black (1-4) who will close out a short two-match stay at home on Wednesday.

MU needed just less than 30 minutes to pick up the coveted doubles point as Andrew Branicki and Lucas Dini rattled ABAC's tandem of Antonin Leborne and Zachary Riley by a 6-1 count on court No. 1, while Fouilhoux and Nemanja Stefanovic surrendered just two games in topping Petar Wemmenhove and Antoine Schaub at No. 2 doubles.

Samuel Barrow and Samuel MacLeod made it a clean doubles sweep for the hosts with a 6-4 win over Benjamin Ranby-Al and Matthew Rodgers on court No. 3.

Barrow posted the first of six straight-sets singles wins for the Bears with a 6-0, 6-1 ousting of Ranby-Al (#37 JuCo) on court No. 5, while Dini closed out a 6-0, 6-2 win over Riley at No. 2 singles just 17 minutes later. MacLeod clinched the team win for the Bears minutes later with a 6-1, 6-3 shellacking of Wemmenhove (#40) on court No. 3.

Branicki won the first four games of his 6-3, 6-2 win over Rodgers at No. 6 singles, while Stefanovic won a back-and-forth 6-3, 6-3 matchup with Leborne (#22) on court No. 1. Fouilhoux won the last two games of his 6-4 opening-set win over Schaub (#48), and trailed 4-3 in the second set before his three-game rally.

The Bears will be back in action again on Wednesday when they take on in-state rival Georgia Southern (0-4) at the LeRoy Peddy Tennis Center. Start time has been scheduled for 2 p.m. and admission is free.