Bears Visit Rocky Top On Sunday

MACON – The Mercer men's tennis team will close out its five-match stretch away from home on Sunday when the Bears travel to Knoxville, Tenn., to take on Southeastern Conference foe Tennessee. Start time has been scheduled for 4 p.m. ET at UT's Barksdale Stadium.

Fans unable to make the trip to northeast Tennessee can still follow all of the action for free via live video and scoring links provided by the UT athletics department.

The Bears (4-8) have been on the wrong end of decisions in three out of their last four matchups, including Friday's 6-1 setback at Southern Conference foe East Tennessee State in nearby Johnson City. The Buccaneers secured the doubles point in that outing, and then opened up singles competition with five-straight wins to fuel the final outcome.

Senior Nemanja Stefanovic raked in the lone team point against ETSU, battling back from an opening-set loss to Martin Vergara with a 6-3 win in the second set, as well as a 7-4 tiebreaker in the deciding third set.

Tennessee (7-11) has dropped its last three contests, and will open up its Sunday schedule with an 11 a.m. tilt against SEC rival Florida at Barksdale Stadium where the Vols have collected six of their seven wins on the season. Sophomore Jose Garcia has tallied 10 singles victories this season across the first three singles courts, including a combined 9-2 mark on Court Nos. 2 and 3.

UT picked up its first win since February 23 by any doubles tandem when Shion Itsusaki and Ethan Muza posted a 6-4 win over the 28^th-ranked duo of Connor Smilie/Jakub Vrba in Friday's 4-3 loss to Arkansas.

The Bears dropped all four previous matchups with Tennessee, including the last three via shutout. Sunday's matchup will mark the first meeting between Mercer and the Vols since a 7-0 shutout by Tennessee on Jan. 31, 2020 in Knoxville.

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Players Mentioned

Nemanja Stefanovic

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