BOSTON, Mass.—Junior Hector Mata (San Salvador, El Salvador) won his first collegiate match, for a rare highlight in a long and tough day for UMass Boston men's tennis.
THE BASICS
Emerson College 6, UMass Boston 3
Roger Williams University 9, UMass Boston 0
(UMass Boston 1-7)
(Emerson 3-0)
(Roger Williams 5-2)
HOW IT HAPPENED
In a rare doubleheader, UMass Boston men's tennis dropped a pair of matches in their home opener.
Mata, who spent two seasons playing soccer, teamed up with senior Zeke Hernandez (Baytown, Texas) at number three singles for an 8-6 win. The win marked Mata's first collegiate win in just his second career match and first match since October. Saturday also saw senior Wyatt Towle (Woburn, Mass.) earn his first win of his senior season, as she grabbed a 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 win at sixth singles.
EMERSON MATCH
The visiting Lions won the first two doubles points and the first four singles points to hand the Beacons a 6-3 loss in UMass Boston's home opener.
Hernandez and Mata claimed the Beacons' lone win in doubles action, while Towle and Sanshrut Sharma (Mumbai, India) collected the team's lone wins in singles. Sharma won his third-straight singles match, as he defeated Blake Greenawalt 6-1, 6-4 at fifth-singles.
Emerson moved to 3-0 on the season behind strong play from their top four, as the Lions top four won all six points for the visitors.
The Beacons kept the doubles action close, as they dropped first doubles by an 8-4 score and fell 8-5 at second doubles.
In singles action, Jack Wang (Suzhou, China) dropped a 6-4, 6-1 decision at second singles and Nik Rhodes defeated Vlad Leopard (Carnikava, Latvia) 6-3, 6-3.
ROGER WILLIAMS MATCH
After already putting in three-plus hours on the courts, the Beacons struggled against a Roger Williams team that was coming off a 9-0 win over Beacons' rival UMass Dartmouth.
The Hawks put on a dominant display, as they dropped just three games on the doubles courts and eight total games in singles play.
Wang and freshman Josh Bhasin (Tulsa, Okla.) proved to be the most competitive Beacons against the Hawks. The pair took two games against Roger Williams' number one doubles team in a 8-2 loss.
In singles play, Bhasin fell 6-2, 6-0 at number one singles, while Wang lost 6-3, 6-0.
BY THE NUMBERS
- Saturday's doubleheader marked the Beacons' first doubleheader since May 4, 2006. The Beacons took on conference foes UMass Dartmouth and the University of Southern Maine that day.
- Sharma improved to 3-2 on the season in singles play. He is now tied with Jack Wang for the team lead in singles victories.
- UMass Boston fell to 2-6 all-time against Emerson College. Today's contest marked the Beacons first match against the Lions since 2001.
- Roger Williams evened up the all-time series with the Beacons at 5-5. It was the first matchup between the two programs since 1997.
WHO'S NEXT
UMass Boston will close out the month of March on Thursday, as they travel to take on Boston rival Suffolk University on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
