Men’s tennis falls to Stetson on the road

(Photo/Troy Athletics)Redshirt junior Christopher Tasker fell to Tim Gennes in singles. Tasker and Javier Llinares fell to Linus Bergevi and Antoine Sanchez in doubles.Scott SheltonSports Editor The Troy men’s tennis team fell to Stetson University 4-3 last Sunday afternoon in DeLand, Florida. The loss puts the team under .500 for the season at a 2-3 record. The team was supposed to play its home opener last Friday against Alabama A&M, but the game was postponed due to bad weather. The team will now have its home opener on Friday Feb. 14 against Florida A&M and the University of North Alabama. On Sunday against Stetson, the Trojans got off to a rough start in doubles play with Oskar Michalek and his doubles partner, Andy Romero, falling to Fabian Penzkofer and Sven Thiergard 6-1. The duo of Carles Anton and Pelayo Antuna continued their roll of doubles wins with a 6-2 win over Clement Hamel and Alexandre Hillhouse of Stetson. The final doubles match came down to Javier Llinares and Christopher Tasker falling 6-2 to the duo of Bergevi and Antoine Sanchez. Troy lost the doubles point after the loss on the first court. The Trojans had better luck in singles play, taking three of six matches. Antuna and Anton continued their dominance in their singles play, too. Anton earned a singles victory against Penzkoferin in a 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 win. Antuna followed with the second singles victory against Antoine Sanchez in two sets of 6-3, 6-4. Michalek took the third and final singles victory of the day for the Trojans against Hamel in a shutout 6-2, 6-2 match. Manuel Bernard dropped a close match to Hillhouse by a score of 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. Tasker lost his match at the hands of Tim Gennes 6-2, 6-3. The final singles match ended up being the deciding point in the game. Llinares dropped his match to Thiergard in three sets of 4-6, 7-5, 6-3. Next, the team travels to Alcorn, Mississippi, to take on the Alcorn State Braves of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC). The Braves have started the season with a 1-7 record with their lone win coming against Florida A&M – Troy’s next opponent. The first match of the day is slated to start at noon.