Panther Men Pluck Fightin’ Blue Hens

MELBOURNE, Fla.-The Florida Tech Panthers (4-13) notched a huge win today against the NCAA Division I program of the University of Delaware (4-2) 5-4 this
afternoon at the Fee Avenue courts.

The Panthers pulled off two key doubles’ wins to set the ball rolling for the rest of the match. Junior pair of Keith Kessler (Brooklyn, NY) and Cliff Giel
(Savaneta, Aruba) shut down their opponents Jesse Carl and Adam Liebman 8-3 in the #1 doubles action. The tough fought battle at the #3 doubles action
finally pushed Tech ahead as the victors with the tandem of junior Christian Smith (Arouco, Trinidad & Tobago) and freshman Jeremy Casperson
(Jacksonville, Fla.) defeating Jon Schwartz and Josh Levine 9-7.

In singles action, Tech again took the #1 and #2 spots with Kessler shutting done his opponent Jesse Carl 6-0 and then Carl retired. Giel notched his 11th
win on the season winning the #2 singles match 6-4, 6-0. Giel after a tough start shut down Adam Liebman in the second set.

Smith, along with freshman Nick Bonilla (Atlanta, Georgia) and Christina Kieber (Sankt, Gallenkirch, Austria) unfortunately fell in the #3, #5 and #6
matches. Despit the losses, Tech’s players managed to take points in each set with Smith falling 6-1, 6-4, while Bonilla fell 6-1, 6-3 and Kieber was the
first to finish 6-1, 6-2.

The deciding point came at #4 match where senior Diego Quiros (Quesada, Costa Rica) stepped up after losing the first set 5-7. He came back to win it
grabbing the next two sets 7-6, 6-3 for the key victory of the day.

The win pushes Tech ahead of last year’s 3-15 record and also is the Panthers second win on a deciding 5-4 match this season. Early this year, the Panthers
lost four 5-4 decisions, until the win against Indianapolis pushed the scale in the other direction for the Crimson and Gray.

Florida Tech will be on the road on Thursday, March 30th facing another DI school Jacksonville University.