MEN's RESULTS

WOMEN's RESULTS

MACON, Ga. – The Mercer men's and women's tennis teams split a duel match against the visiting Jacksonville St. Gamecocks on Tuesday with the men picking up a 5-2 win and the women falling 6-1 at the LeRoy Peddy Tennis Center.

The Mercer men improved to 2-3 on the season with the victory, while the women fell to 1-3.

The Bears men's team got out to a quick, decisive 1-0 start by taking all three doubles matches. Mercer's No. 1 player Pierre Tafelski finished first to set the tone in the singles matches, taking a 6-0, 6-1 win over Axel Sundberg.

"We always play a tough close match against JSU," head coach Warren Woolfolk said. "Winning the doubles point turned out to be very important. And I thought Pierre's quick finish definitely helped spark the guys the rest of the way."

No. 4 Joao Pagan, No. 5 Vincent DeLise and No. 6 Victor Dias all picked up wins to pull out the home victory for the Bears. DeLise pulled out an impressive win in a marathon match with JSU's Felipe Watanabe to close out the day. The freshman fought back from a 4-2 second-set deficit to take a 7-5, 7-6 (7-4) straight-set win.

On the women's side, sophomore Lucie Payrat picked up the Bears' lone win of the day at the No. 2 singles position. With the win Payrat has now rattled off an amazing 14-straight duel match victories in singles, dating back to last season. On Tuesday, she won 6-2, 6-4 over JSU's Raphaela Lima.

Mercer's No.1 singles player, Jennifer Lada had a close match come down wire in a third tiebreaker, but eventually fell to JSU's Raisa Guasti, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-1).

Both teams next hosts Florida A&M this Friday afternoon in another non-conference duel match at the LeRoy Peddy Tennis Center in Macon. Match time is set for 1 p.m.