Panthers Split Defeating #12 Luther College and Falling to SSC Opponent #16 Rollins in Mens Tennis

MELBOURNE, Fla. (tennis) — Florida Tech faced #16 Central Region NCAA III Luther College Norse on Monday 5-4 and then hosted Sunshine State Conference and
#16 ranked Rollins College Tars in Southeast regional action today to a 6-3 loss. In two days, the Panthers played two top ranked teams one at a neutral
site in Orlando and today’s match at home at the Fee Avenue courts.

Seniors’ Keith Kessler (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and Cliff Giel (Savaneta, Aruba), still ranked #15 nationally in doubles action won all six of their matches in the
past two days. In doubles action they defeated the #9 Central Region ranked tandem of Maxwell Busch (Duluth, Minn.) and Jono Martin (North Oaks, Minn.) 8-3
while coming back today and defeating Jonathon Gomez (Diego Martin, Trinidad) and Gustavo Carvahlo (Rio de Janiero, Brazil) 8-1 both at the #1 spot.

Giel defeated the Tars’ Brain Compton (Cincinnati, Ohio) in a heated match today 6-7, 6-3, 10-8 falling by one point 6-7 in the first set and coming back
to take him 6-3 in the second and a 10-8 winning tie-breaker. Giel easily shut-down Norse #1 Busch 6-1, 6-3 yesterday.

In the #2 spot #13 Kessler, despite a shoulder injury, is playing hard shutting down Utsab Rijal (Katmandu, Nepal) 6-0, 6-3 against Luther while coming
back today to defend the #2 spot once again defeating higher ranked #32 nationally ranked and #7 regionally ranked Adrian Tan (Sydney, Australia) 6-2, 6-4
without allowing Tan a winning set.

Against Luther College, Jeremy Casperson (Jacksonville, Fla.) won both his # 6 singles match and the #2 doubles march partnered with Jon Hanna (Nassau,
Bahamas). In singles, Casperson downed Nate Yung (Dubuque, Iowa) 6-2, 6-0. In the #2 doubles match, both Casperson and Hanna had the best match of the day
defeating Bradley Nelson (Northfield, Minn.) and Rijal 8-2.

Despite the loss to Rollins’ the Panthers were able to grab at least one point in all of the doubles and singles action from each of the sets, not allowing
the Tars to shut out any Tech player. Hanna took the Tars’ Gomez to three sets falling 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 despite a valiant effort by the freshman.

Florida Tech is now 7-11 on the season and 1-4 in conference. The will host DI the University of Delaware at Fee Avenue at 1:00 p.m. match on Friday, March
23rd.

Tennis Match Results
Florida Tech vs Luther College
3/19/07 at Orlando, Fla.

Florida Tech 5, Luther College 4

Singles competition
1. Clifford Giel (FTM) def. Maxwell Busch (LC) 6-1, 6-3
2. Keith Kessler (FTM) def. Utsab Rijal (LC) 6-0, 6-3
3. Jono Martin (LC) def. Jonathan Hanna (FTM) 6-1, 6-0
4. Thomas Orser (LC) def. Joel Zahlan (FTM) 6-2, 6-0
5. Jared Wiklund (LC) def. Christian Smith (FTM) 6-2, 6-1
6. Jeremy Casperson (FTM) def. Nate Jung (LC) 6-2, 6-0

Doubles competition
1. #15 Clifford Giel/Keith Kessler (FTM) def. Jono Martin/Maxwell Busch (LC) 8-3
2. Jonathan Hanna/Jeremy Casperson (FTM) def. Bradley Nelson/Utsab Rijal (LC) 8-2
3. Jared Wiklund/Derek Hoffman (LC) def. Christian Smith/Christian Kieber (FTM) 8-6

Match Notes:
Florida Tech 7-10 (NCAA II, Southeast Region); Regional ranking #10
National Rankings: Giel/Kessler #15/Regional #4, Regional: Kessler #13
Luther College 11-1 (NCAA III, Central Region); Regional ranking #13
Regional Rankings: Busch/Martin #9
T-2 hours A-47

Tennis Match Results
Rollins College vs Florida Tech
03/20/07 at Melbourne, Fla.

#5 Rollins College 6, #10 Florida Tech 3

Singles competition
1. Clifford Giel (FTM) def. Brian Compton (RCM) 6-7, 6-3, 10-8
2. #13 Keith Kessler (FTM) def. #7 Adrian Tan (RCM) 6-2, 6-4
3. Jonathan Gomez (RCM) def. Jonathan Hanna (FTM) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
4. Gustavo Carvalho (RCM) def. Joel Zahlan (FTM) 6-2, 6-1
5. Pablo Seijo (RCM) def. Christian Smith (FTM) 6-4, 6-1
6. Albin Hubscher (RCM) def. Jeremy Casperson (FTM) 6-2, 6-3

Doubles competition
1. #4 Keith Kessler/Clifford Giel (FTM) def. Jonathan Gomez/Gustavo Carvalho (RCM) 8-1
2. Adrian Tan/Michael Schwartz (RCM) def. Jeremy Casperson/Jonathan Hanna (FTM) 8-4
3. Brian Compton/Albin Hubscher (RCM) def. Christian Smith/Arthur Yentumi (FTM) 8-5

Match Notes:
NCAA II, Southeast Region, Sunshine State Conference
Rollins College 10-5, 1-0; National ranking #16; Regional ranking #5
National Rankings: Adrian Tan #32/Regional #7, Regional: Carvahlo/Tan #7
Florida Tech 7-11, 1-4; Regional ranking #10
National Rankings: Kessler/Giel #15/ Regional #4, Regional: Kessler #13
Official: Hagar Bryant T-3:00 A-39

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