March 12, 2008

Results

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The JU men's tennis team fell 6-1 to nationally ranked Stetson on March 8 in DeLand, Fla. before losing a heartbreaker, 4-3, against Eastern Kentucky at the Keith Watson Tennis Complex.

The Dolphins' No. 1, Jordi Ballester, picked up their sole singles win against Stetson, defeating Marcus Echtler 6-2, 2-6, 7-6.

"We battled with them on their court," said JU head coach Shane Wood. "We pulled out a big win at No. 1. It was a good match and we competed well with a ranked team."

The Dolphins' lost a close matchup to Eastern Kentucky, seeing the match decided by the doubles' point after splitting the singles matches, 3-3.

Dolphins' No. 2 Victor Vaz, No. 3, Francisco Riveroll and No. 5 Vinny Craveiro all claimed singles matches for the Dolphins' in two sets, while Ballester, who lost his No. 1 matchup in three sets, teamed up with Riveroll to take the Dolphins' only win in doubles.

"The teams were pretty evenly matched but we just lost a heartbreaker," Wood said. "At the end they played the most crucial points better than we did. We knew it would be a tough match against them after we beat them in a close one last year, but this year they got us back. We will continue to go to work."

The Dolphins will be in conference action on Thursday as they travel to Buies Creek, N.C., to take on Campbell at 3 p.m.