Georgia Southern Tops Mercer In Slugfest

Wednesday, January 31

Macon, Ga.

2 p.m.

Mercer University

Georgia Southern

1/31/2024 7:51:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Todd Anderson, anderson_t02@mercer.edu

MACON – Visiting Georgia Southern used an 8-6 tiebreaker to clinch the coveted doubles point in the early going, and then toughed out a series of hard-fought singles victories, to fuel a 6-1 victory over the Mercer men's tennis team on Wednesday afternoon at the Leroy Peddy Tennis Center.

The setback spoiled the on-campus home opener for the Bears (1-5) who picked up their first win of the season on Sunday with a 7-0 shutout of Abraham Baldwin College at the Randy Stephens Tennis Center in southern Bibb County. The result marked the first win of the season for the Eagles (1-4) who have now taken five-straight matches in the series with the Orange & Black.

Georgia Southern got an early jolt from its No. 2 doubles squad as Judson Blair and Pierre Mouesca logged a 6-3 win over MU's duo of Nemanja Stefanovic and Marceau Fouilhoux. Georgia Southern used a bit of dramatics to clinch the doubles point a short time later when Mercer's tandem of Lucas Dini and Andrew Branicki fell on the wrong end of a matchup with Pol Del Castillo and Dimitris Paliouras that was decided by an 8-6 tiebreaker.

Samuel Barrow and Samuel MacLeod split the first 12 games with Laurent Julia Calac and Matthew Mitchell at No. 3 doubles, and were headed to a tiebreak before their match was abandoned.

Del Castillo needed 64 minutes to top MacLeod in straight sets (6-0, 6-1) at No. 3 singles, and Paliouras followed with a 6-1, 6-1 victory at No. 2 singles 20 minutes later to set the visitors up for the clincher. Georgia Southern clinched their first team win of the season a short time after when Blair closed out a 7-5, 6-3 win over Fouilhoux on court No. 4.

Mitchell used a 7-2 tiebreaker in the second set to close out a 7-5, 7-6 win over Branicki at No 6 singles, before Barrow got the hosts off the mark with a 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 win over Julia Calac.

The closely-contested matchup was highlighted at No. 1 singles, however, as Stefanovic and Mouesca battled it out for nearly three hours before using a 13-11 superset to close out the evening. The two standouts split 7-6 decisions in each of the first two sets, both of which went to tiebreakers.

Mercer will play the first of three-straight matches away from Macon on Sunday when it treks to Jacksonville, Fla., to battle North Florida (0-2) at the UNF Tennis Complex. Start time has been slated for noon.