Bears Tough Out Win Over Visiting Chattanooga

Sunday, April 7

Macon, Ga.

Noon

Mercer University

Chattanooga

Bears Tough Out Win Over Visiting Chattanooga

4/7/2024 5:35:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score Box Score

By: Todd Anderson, anderson_t02@mercer.edu

MACON – The Mercer men's tennis team surrendered just two games on Court Nos. 1 and 3 in grabbing the early doubles point, then got the better end of the result in a trio of three-set singles matches, on the way to topping defending Southern Conference regular season champion Chattanooga, 5-2, on Sunday afternoon at the LeRoy Peddy Tennis Center.

It was the sixth win in the last seven dual matchups for the Bears (7-10, 4-1 SoCon) who snapped a two-match series skid, while also registering their most lopsided win over the Mocs in six seasons. Chattanooga (8-14, 2-4) has now dropped three-straight matches, while Sunday's setback dropped UTC to 1-10 in true road matches.

MU's tandem of Marceau Fouilhoux and Nemanja Stefanovic bolted out to a 3-1 lead before easily dispelling of UTC's Cortland Grove and Jordan McClure at No. 2 doubles, and the Bears picked up the crucial doubles point three minutes later when seniors Samuel Barrow and Samuel MacLeod finished off a 6-3 triumph over Walker Valentine and Jaxon Lamb.

The squads split singles matchups on Court Nos. 2 and 5 – matches that took just more than 90 minutes to complete – but the remainder of singles play proved much tougher to decide. Senior Victor Putter shook off an opening-set loss at No. 6 singles before posting a 6-7 (10-8), 6-4, 6-1 win that gave the hosts a 3-1 lead on the team scoreboard.

The remaining three singles matchups, all of which took at least 2 hours and 45 minutes to complete, needed a third set to decide the victor. UTC's Jakub Jupa topped Stefanovic at No. 1 singles by 6-7 (7-5), 6-2, 6-4 scores to nudge the Mocs closer, but Barrow and Fouilhoux finished off their opponents to secure the win for Mercer.

Barrow won a third-set tiebreaker to topple Ryan Mudre on Court No. 4, while Fouilhoux rebounded from a first-set loss with tiebreak victories in both the second and third sets.

The Bears will close out the road portion of their regular season schedule on Friday when they trek to Birmingham, Ala., to tangle with Samford (12-7, 5-1) at the Pat M. Courington Tennis Pavillion. First serves are scheduled for 3 p.m. ET.