GREENVILLE, S.C. – The Furman men's tennis team dropped its final home match of the season Wednesday afternoon, 4-1, to the Mercer Bears in Southern Conference action at Mickel Tennis Center.

Furman falls to 6-12 overall and 2-2 in the SoCon. With the win, Mercer improves to 9-6 on the season and 4-0 in conference play.

Prior to Wednesday's match, the Paladins held their Senior Day ceremony honoring Cole Burnam, Matt Kandel, Connor Laymon, Elijah Poritzky, and John Rado.

Mercer swept all three doubles matches to claim the point and take an early 1-0 lead over Furman. Howell Burns and Esteb Davila Gasser topped Walker Allen and Theophile Joly in the No. 3 match, 6-2, and Marceau Fouilhoux and Nemanja Stefanovic clinched the point with a 6-4 victory at No. 2 over Nicolas Dispas and Nico Snyder. Playing at No. 1, Kandel and Laymon sent their match against Amen Prince Gandonou and Hod'Abalo Isak Padio into a tiebreaker before falling, 6-7(4).

The Bears followed in singles capturing three of the four completed matches to secure the 4-1 victory. Mercer earned back-to-back victories from Stefanovic and Padio at No. 1 and No. 2. Padio topped Joly, 6-1, 6-0, at No. 2 and Stefanovic followed at No. 1 defeating Kandel, 6-2, 7-5. Tom Hagelauer clinched the match for the Bears at No. 4 with his 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory over Dispas.

Playing at No. 3, Rado recorded fifth win of the season with a 7-5, 6-3 triumph versus Gangonou to put the Paladins on the board. Connor Laymon was leading his No. 5 match against Fouilhoux, 3-2, when Mercer won the contest.

Furman starts a three-match road trip to end the regular season Friday afternoon traveling to Chattanooga for a 2 p.m. matchup. Fans can follow the action on www.furmanpaladins.com via live stats. Updates will be posted on the Furman men's tennis Twitter page (@FurmanMTennis).