April 20, 2023

by Dustin Semore, FHU Sports Information Director

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Playing to clinch in the first round of the Mid-South Conference Men's Tennis Tournament, the No. 9 seed Freed-Hardeman University Lions defeated the No. 8 seed Georgetown (Ky.) College Tigers 4-2 on Thursday.

After second-team All-MSC Merlin Bolema and the All-MSC honorably mentioned Maxime Guyon won their doubles match for the Lions (7-9) on the No. 2 court 6-2, the Tigers bounced back with a 6-3 win over Caden Arnold and Nolan Laduree. Clinching the doubles point was the duo of Aleka Pesic and Theo Devals-Hamel, who won their match 6-4.

Laduree jumped out to win his singles match 6-1, 6-1 in the only straight two-set match of the singles draw. Merlin Bolema put the Lions up 3-0 by winning on the No. 1 court 4-6, 6-1, 6-3, but Georgetown (6-16) answered with a win on the No. 5 court 6-4, 7-6 (7-4). The Tigers picked up their second point with a win over Pesic in three sets: 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. On the No. 6 court, Arnold clinched the duel by winning his match 6-2, 4-6, 6-4. Unable to finish their match after the clinching point, Guyon had fought back after losing 6-3 by forcing a tiebreak to win the second set 7-6 (7-4), before seeing his match cut short trailing 3-1. 

Up Next

The Lions will next compete in the quarterfinal round against the top-seeded No. 12 University of the Cumberlands (Ky.) Patriots. The Lions will take on the MSC's regular-season champion on Friday, April 21, at 9:30 a.m. in Bowling Green.