Bears Tangle With Chattanooga At Home Sunday

MACON – The Mercer men's tennis team will close out a short two-match home stay on Sunday when the Bears bunker down to take on Southern Conference rival Chattanooga in an 11 a.m. matchup at the Copelan Tennis Complex. Admission is free.

Fans unable to make the trip to Middle Georgia can still follow all of the action for free via a live scoring link provided by the MU athletics department.

The Bears (5-11, 0-2 SoCon) used every bit of four hours to stage a 4-3 comeback victory over visiting UAB on Friday in Macon, using three-set victories from seniors Nemanja Stefanovic and Amen Prince Gandonou to nip the Blazers. That triumph capped the non-conference schedule for the Orange & Black, while also putting the kibosh on a four-match skid.

Stefanovic has triumphed in eight of his last nine singles outings (4-match win streak), including a three-set ouster of UAB's Ondrej Valek in Friday's featured matchup in Macon. Doubles has been a mixed bag for the Bears, although the duo of Gandonou and sophomore Shingo Masuda have mustered a 5-2 clip in the No. 2 position, while the tandem of Stefanovic and Hod'Abalo Isak Padio are 7-4 on Court No. 1 in 2026, including eight wins in their last nine matches that have been played to completion.

Chattanooga (9-9, 3-1) had its four-match winning skein abruptly halted with a tough 4-3 home loss to SoCon-leading Samford on Friday. The Bulldogs toughed out the early doubles point in that outing, and then used a pair of three-set singles triumphs to fuel the final outcome.

The Mocs have raked in the doubles point in five out of their last six outings, and are paced on the doubles courts by the tandem of Julian Franzmann and Kristof Kincses who have compiled a 9-4 clip on Court No. 2 this spring. Junior all-conference standout Jakub Jupa has compiled a 13-4 mark at the No. 1 singles position, and has captured a dozen-straight singles matchups (nine in straight sets) dating back to a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Tennessee Tech's Oliver Dao on February 20.

The Bears are 11-7 all-time in the 92-year-old series history with Chattanooga that dates all the way back to the 1933-34 campaign. The Mocs have captured three of the last five duals with the Orange & Black, but Mercer rallied back from a late 3-2 deficit last season to stun UTC, 4-3, in Chattanooga, Tenn.

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Players Mentioned

Amen Prince Gandonou

Shingo Masuda

Hod'Abalo Isak Padio

Nemanja Stefanovic

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