Men’s Tennis Falls to the University of Mobile, 7-2

Marion, AL—In the season opener for both teams, the University of Mobile Rams rammed the MMI Tigers, 7-2, in a Saturday afternoon exhibition match at the Paul B. Anderson Tennis Complex on the front lawn of the historic MMI campus.

The University of Mobile's bottom three singles players—Nick Van Amerom, Santiago Quiros, and Guilherme Pansera—scored easy wins for the Rams.

The Rams extended their lead to 4-0 when Marcio dal Pont defeated MMI's Romar Hernandez, 6-4, 7-6 (2) at second singles.

The Tigers claimed their first point of the afternoon with Kaiser De Leon's scintillating victory at No. 1 singles.  De Leon came from behind to defeat Lars Bannack in a three-set thriller, 4-6, 6-4, 6-0.

In one of the most riveting matches of the day, Mobile's Karlis Stonis narrowly defeated MMI's Jake McDonough, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

"Jake played a great match today," Coach Wright said.  "That match could have gone either way.  Unfortunately, it didn't go Jake's way today, but if he keeps playing hard and practicing hard, those matches are eventually going to go his way.  In my book, Jake was the true winner of that match because of his unparalleled effort and fight."

To round out the scoring, Mobile won two of the three doubles matches, with MMI's lone win coming at No. 2 doubles.  Romar Hernandez and Jake McDonough reeled off the last four games in a row to score an 8-5 decision over the Mobile tandem of Bruno Marquis and Marcio Marakami.

The Tigers will travel to play a tennis doubleheader with Meridian Community College and Hinds Community College in Meridian, MS, at the Northeast Tennis Center on Saturday, February 8.  First serves are slated to fly at 11:00 a.m. (Meridian) and 3:30 p.m. (Hin