The regular season was success but the Stetson men’s tennis team wants more, and the Hatters will get their opportunity at the ASUN Conference Championships, which begin Friday at UNF Tennis Complex in Jacksonville, Fla.

Stetson opens tournament play as the No. 2 seed for the second straight year after going 17-3 overall and 5-1 in conference play. The Hatters received a bye into the semifinals and will face either FGCU of NJIT at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. Host North Florida is the regular-season champion and the tournament’s No. 1 seed.

While Stetson’s regular season would be considered a success by any measure, head coach Christophe Noblet is more satisfied with Stetson’s conference mark and how the team responded to its lone ASUN loss against North Florida.

“Our overall record is nice, but our conference record is more important,” Noblet said. “I’m pleased with that and also with how we responded after our loss to UNF. We realized that we had a lot to work on and improve and we embraced that. We took a bit of an underdog attitude the rest of the way and were successful, and if we maintain that it will give us a great opportunity going into the conference tournament. As long as we focus on ourselves I’m excited about it.”

If the Hatters are to win the conference tournament championship and advance to the NCAA Tournament, they’ll need to rely heavily on their veteran leadership. Senior Loic Blanco, junior Coilin MacNamara and sophomores Angus Bradshaw,Colter DeCoste and William Shkrob know what it’s like to compete for a championship. And their insight will be key as freshmen Linus Bergevi, Malik Bhatnagar and Antoine Sanchez play in their first ASUN Championship.

“All we can do is get prepared for every scenario that can occur,” Noblet said. “When you’ve been around you can share all of your past experiences with the new guys and help them prepare for what’s ahead.”

Don’t expect the Hatters to change much as the postseason begins. When you win 85 percent of your matches, there’s not a lot of room for tinkering.

“We’re not making any changes at this point,” Noblet said. “If you’re worried about making changes at this time of year you’re not very confident in what you’re doing. We had a great team meeting on Monday and we talked a lot about enjoying our time together and looking forward to still being together next week. We want to make this weekend enjoyable and to enjoy every hour we have on the court together.”

The ASUN Championship runs through Sunday.

-GoHatters.com