Ribeiro hands Julin first loss of spring season

DELAND, Fla. (March 28, 2013) – The ETSU men’s tennis team handed Stetson just its second loss of the season and first in Atlantic Sun play, defeating the Hatters, 6-1, Thursday afternoon from the Mandy Stoll Tennis Center.

ETSU (6-6, 2-1 A-Sun) won a split doubles point, 9-8 (7-4), on court three and No. 120 Jesus Bandres (Caracas, Venezuela) got the Bucs rolling in singles, 6-2, 6-1, at No. 1 over Didrik Berg. Juan Ramirez (Asuncion, Paraguay) won in straights at No. 3 to put ETSU a point from victory and junior Roger Ordeig (Gurb, Spain) clinched the win on court five before Stetson (13-2, 4-1 A-Sun) was able to grab any points.

With the outcome decided, the Hatters took their first point at No. 4 as Cahit Kapukiran defeated Jorge Varon (Valencia, Venezuela) in a match tiebreak, 4-6, 7-5, 1-0 (10-7). Sophomores Ricardo Pabon (Bogota, Columbia) and Rogerio Ribeiro (Sao Paulo, Brazil) made sure it was the only point Stetson got, winning their matches at No. 6 and 2, respectively.

“We’re still struggling through doubles, but we played much better in singles.” Director of ETSU Tennis Yaser Zaatini said. “It was good to see that we were fighting for the majority of the points, where usually we get distracted and let some of them go. We did a much better job of staying in every point.

“We’re still far from being as dominant as we once were and where I’d like us to be.”

Bandres and Ribeiro got the day started at No. 1 doubles by winning their set, 8-5, against Laurynas Antropikas and Hans Adrian Riseng. Berg and Simon Julin evened it up at No. 2, 8-6, past Ramirez and Varon.

The split outcomes brought the point down to court three. The set went to a tiebreak, where Pabon and Ordeig prevailed past Nathan Debut and Kapukiran at double set point.

Bandres – newly ranked No. 120 in the ITA singles poll – proved worthy of his ranking, dispensing of Berg easily to put ETSU ahead, 2-0, and improving his personal record to 14-11 overall, 8-3 dual. Ramirez made the score 3-0, fighting off Antropikas, 6-4, 6-3, and improving to 16-9 overall, 8-4 dual. Ordeig’s clincher improved him to 18-12, 6-5.

Ribeiro’s win ended the day, downing Julin, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4). The loss is Julin’s first of the spring season (13-1) and ends his 13-match winning streak. Ribeiro improved his team-best record to 22-11, 7-4.

The Buccaneers will look to keep it going Saturday, taking on Florida Gulf Coast from the FGCU Tennis Complex. First serve is scheduled for 11 a.m.

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