HILTON HEAD, S.C.—With their top two players in the lineup for the first time this spring, UMass Boston Men's Tennis routed Curry College 9-0 to earn their first win of the 2015-16 season.
THE BASICS
UMass Boston 9, Curry College 0
(UMass Boston 1-4)
(Curry College 0-2)
HOW IT HAPPENED
Sophomore Austin DeLasse (Shrewsbury, Mass.) and Josh Bhasin (Tulsa, Okla.) both returned to the lineup Wednesday, as the Beacons easily defeated their local Boston neighbors.
Senior Zeke Hernandez (Baytown, Texas) and sophomore Sanshrut Sharma (Mumbai, India) each won their first collegiate points in the victory. Hernandez teamed up with Guang Huang (Quincy, Mass.) for an 8-0 win at third doubles and he also earned a 6-0, 6-2 win at fifth singles. Sharma made quick work of his match, as he picked up win number one with a 6-0, 6-0 win at sixth singles.
The Beacons dominated the Colonels in doubles action, as UMass Boston won 24 of 28 doubles points. Hernandez and Huang started doubles off with an 8-0 win at third doubles and Jack Wang (Suzhou, China) and Adhirath Bhatotia (New Delhi, India) quickly followed with an 8-0 win of their own.
In the only close match, Bhasin and DeLasse teamed up for an 8-4 win over Toma Blatchford and Richie Hefler at top-flight doubles.
Singles action would be more of the same, as the Colonels won two games or fewer on four of the six courts.
Wang opened singles play with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Andrew Hegarty at number three singles. Sharma and Bhatotia quickly followed with straight-set 6-0, 6-0 wins at sixth and fourth singles respectively, to push the lead to 6-0.
DeLasse made it 7-0, as the sophomore downed Hefler 6-2, 6-2 in DeLasse's first singles match of the year.
Bhasin tacked on a 6-2, 6-3 win at number two singles and Hernandez closed out the match with a 6-2, 6-0 win at fifth singles.
BY THE NUMBERS
- Wednesday's win marked the Beacons' 17th win in 24 all-time matches against Curry and their second-straight 9-0 victory.
- The victory marked UMass Boston's first 9-0 win since April 27, 2013. UMass Boston's only two shutout wins of the past two seasons came in the Little East Conference Quarterfinals, when they downed Western Connecticut State University by identical 5-0 scores.
- UMass Boston also snapped a six-match losing streak over Spring Break, as the Beacons finished 0-4 last year in Puerto Rico.
- DeLasse was making his 2015-16 debut, after missing each of the team's first four matches.
WHO'S NEXT
UMass Boston will close out their Spring Break trip on Thursday, as they will take on Ramapo College at 1 p.m.
