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Felipe Escobar
Brad Young

Men's Tennis Meg Ellis

PREVIEW: Eagles kick off road swing with match at Stetson

FORT MYERS, Fla. – The FGCU men's tennis team (7-8, 2-0 ASUN) will hit the road to take on Stetson (9-8, 1-1 ASUN) for a conference matchup on Saturday, March 30. The match between the Hatters and Eagles is set for 2 p.m. at the Mandy Stoll Tennis Center and marks the first of a three-match conference road slate for the Green and Blue.

"We accomplished what we wanted as a team against Brown, and now it's time to continue that for the remainder of our conference season," head coach CJ Weber said. "We're looking forward to the matchup against Stetson and I expect a good match."

Last Time Out
•     The Eagles closed out the non-conference portion of their season with a 4-3 win over Brown on Thursday night at the FGCU Tennis Complex.
•     The duo of Feliksas Sakalauskas (Palanga, Lithuania/Virginia Tech) and Felipe Ramirez (Armenia, Colombia/Florida Virtual School) earned a 6-3 victory on court No. 2, putting the team in position to win the doubles point.
•     Felipe Escobar (Pereira, Colombia/Liceo Frances de Pereira/TCU) and Mateo Ruiz (Bucaramagna, Colombia/Oklahoma State) sealed the doubles point with a 7-5 win over No. 78 Roger Chau / Charles Tan.
•     Javier Fernandez (Ibiza, Spain/IES CTEIB) extended his current winning streak to four matches with a 6-1, 7-5 triumph at the fifth flight.
•     After the Bears claimed two singles matches, Marcelo Tebet (Londrina, Brazil/Colégio Anglo Americano) tied things up between the teams at 3-3 with a straight-set victory at the sixth court.
•     Sakalauskas clinched the match for the Green and Blue with a decisive 6-1 win in the third set at the fourth flight.

Scouting the Hatters
•     This will be the 16th meeting in the series between the two teams, which Stetson currently leads 10-5.
•     The Hatters won the first eight matches in the series before FGCU rattled off a five-match win streak of its own from 2014-17. Stetson snapped the streak in the regular season last year and also defeated the Eagles in the 2018 ASUN tournament semifinals.
•     FGCU has won two of the last three at the Mandy Stoll Tennis Center.
•     Stetson suffered a 5-2 conference loss at UNF last weekend. The Hatters' only points of the day were at courts three and six in singles play.
•     Freshmen Tim Gennes and Christian Mills both own 8-2 records in their last 10 decisions. Gennes plays primarily in the middle of the lineup, while Mills competes at the fifth and sixth positions.
•     Gennes and fellow freshman Josh Laka have posted a 3-5 record at No. 1 singles.
•     Stetson's roster shows that the team is very young this season. The Hatters have six freshmen and just four upperclassmen, meaning that it could be a team to watch for in the next few seasons of ASUN play.

Up Next
FGCU will continue its conference road swing with a match at North Alabama next Tuesday, April 4. The Green and Blue will face off against the Lions at 2 p.m. at the UNA Tennis Complex. The matchup will be the first in program history between the two teams. UNA is currently in its first season as an NCAA Division I member and is also in its first season in the ASUN.

FOLLOW ALONG
For complete coverage of FGCU men's tennis follow us on Twitter & Instagram @FGCU_MTEN and visit www.FGCUAthletics.com where full recaps and results will be available at the end of the competition.

CJ WEBER
FGCU is led by CJ Weber, who has coached 29 ASUN All-Conference selections since joining the Green and Blue in 2011. In his seventh year, Weber has compiled an 88-76 (.536) overall record and a 33-18 (.647) record in ASUN play. In 2014-15, Weber guided the Eagles to their first-ever ASUN Championship and first-ever ASUN Regular Season title after a program-best 17 wins. In his third season, Weber led Jordi Vives to a No. 35 national ranking, a nation-leading 14-match unbeaten streak and the round of 32 in the 2014 NCAA Tournament - the program's first appearance. The Eagles completed consecutive perfect ASUN seasons in 2016 and back-to-back conference titles as well as a second-straight Coach of the Year honor for Weber. FGCU again won the ASUN Championship in 2017, advancing to its second NCAA appearance in program history. 
 
 
 
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Players Mentioned

Felipe Escobar

Felipe Escobar

5' 8"
Senior
Javier Fernandez

Javier Fernandez

5' 8"
Senior
Felipe Ramirez

Felipe Ramirez

6' 1"
Junior
Mateo Ruiz

Mateo Ruiz

6' 1"
Senior
Marcelo Tebet

Marcelo Tebet

6' 2"
Junior
Feliksas Sakalauskas

Feliksas Sakalauskas

6' 5"
Junior

Players Mentioned

Felipe Escobar

Felipe Escobar

5' 8"
Senior
Javier Fernandez

Javier Fernandez

5' 8"
Senior
Felipe Ramirez

Felipe Ramirez

6' 1"
Junior
Mateo Ruiz

Mateo Ruiz

6' 1"
Senior
Marcelo Tebet

Marcelo Tebet

6' 2"
Junior
Feliksas Sakalauskas

Feliksas Sakalauskas

6' 5"
Junior