The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's tennis team dropped a 4-1 match to Mercer in the opening round of the Southern Conference Tournament at the John Drew Smith Tennis Center in Macon, Ga., today. 

The Mocs end their 2019 season with a 14-11 overall record, the most wins for the program since 2012.  UTC came into the tournament as the No. 3 seed, its highest finish in the SoCon regular season since 1999.  UTC 4-3 league tally was the most conference wins in a season since 2013. 

UTC was trying to avenge a 4-3 loss to the Bears on March 24 in Chattanooga.  Chattanooga opened by taking the doubles point. 

Senior Pablo Llebeili and sophomore Luke Plaisted started things off with a 6-3 win at No. 3.  Mercer evened the doubles with a win at No. 1.  Junior Niklas Gerdes and freshman Tomas Rodriguez clinched the point with a 7-6 win at No. 2. 

Mercer took the first four doubles matches that were off the court.  Three of those wins came in three sets, while the last two that did not finish were also in the third set. 

The Mocs close out a historic season that included Kerim Hyatt taking home SoCon Freshman of the Year honors, Gerdes repeating as the Don Bunch/Buddy Hartsell SoCon Sportsmanship Award Winner and Chuck Merzbacher earning SoCon Coach of the Year honors.