Bears Cruise Past The Citadel On Senior Day

Saturday, April 11

Macon, Ga.

11 a.m.

Mercer University

The Citadel

4/11/2026 7:41:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Todd Anderson, anderson_t02@mercer.edu

MACON – Mercer registered a pair of dominant victories to make quick work of doubles action, and then tacked up five straight-sets triumphs in singles action, to fuel a 7-0 shutout of visiting The Citadel in the regular season finale for both sides on Saturday afternoon at the Copelan Tennis Complex.

Seniors Howell Burns, Hod'Abalo Isak Padio and Nemanja Stefanovic all tallied a perfect 2-0 day on the court to highlight Senior Day for the Bears (9-12, 4-3 SoCon) who have now captured five of their last six outings heading into next week's Southern Conference Tournament in Chattanooga, Tenn. It was the 15^th-straight loss for the Bulldogs (5-24, 0-7) in the 26-year-old series with the Orange & Black.

Padio/Stefanovic and Burns/Cameron Douthit yielded just one game in capturing doubles triumphs on Court Nos. 1 and 3 respectively, but the hosts made it a clean sweep a short time later when Alex Aldaz and Shingo Masuda finished off a 6-4 win over The Citadel's Tucker Hendrix and Noah Van Dyke on Court No. 2.

The Bears dominated singles play as well, surrendering four games or less on the way to picking up a quartet of straight-sets wins, while Shingo Masuda logged his 16^th singles victory of the season on Court No. 3 with a 7-5, 7-6 (7-3) win over Ted Bagwell.

Burns, one of four players playing their last collegiate match at the Copelan Tennis Complex, dropped a 6-1 second set to Reece Beckendorf, but rebounded with a dominant 10-3 victory in the break set.

Mercer will begin its postseason road on Thursday when the fourth-seeded Bears take on fifth-seeded Furman (8-14) in the quarterfinals round of the 2026 SoCon Tournament. Start time has been slated for 1 p.m. at Champions Club in Chattanooga.