BOSTON, Mass.—After falling behind 2-1 after doubles, UMass Boston men's tennis earned a clean sweep of singles play, to earn a 7-2 win over Little East Conference foe Salem State University.
THE BASICS
UMass Boston 7, Salem State 2
(UMass Boston 5-9, Little East 3-1)
(Salem State 5-4, Little East 2-2)
HOW IT HAPPENED
After struggling in doubles play, UMass Boston won all six singles matches to earn back-to-back victories for the first time all season.
Number two doubles pair Jack Wang (Suzhou, China) and Adhirath Bhatotia (New Delhi, India) teamed up to go a perfect 3-0 on the day, to help the Beacons move into sole possession of second-place in the Little East Conference.
The Beacons opened the match with a win at second doubles, as Wang and Bhatotia cruised to an easy 8-2 win.
Salem State would take command of the doubles from there, as Luke Hodgkins and Jacob Averka handed Zeke Hernandez (Baytown, Texas) and Hector Mata (San Salvador, El Salvador) an 8-4 loss.
In the closest doubles match, the Vikings John Didonato and Kevin Lam overcame an early deficit, to pick up an 8-6 win over Austin DeLasse (Mexico City, Mexico) and Josh Bhasin (Tulsa, Okla.).
After a short conference, the Beacons would rally to deny Salem State the upset.
Sophomore Sanshrut Sharma (Mumba, India) evened the match at 2-2, with a decisive 6-2, 6-0 win over Hodgkins in fifth-flight singles.
Wang made it 3-2 in favor of the hosts moments later, as he earned a 6-2, 6-0 win of his own at third singles.
DeLasse kept the momentum going on court one. The sophomore downed Didonato 6-1, 7-5 to put the Beacons within a point of winning the match.
Bhatotia finally obliged, as he managed to finish his match moments before Bhasin.
The sophomore grabbed a 7-6 (11-9), 6-2 win in fourth singles, after facing set point on two occasions in the first set.
Bhasin needed three sets on court two, as he outlasted Chen Chen 1-6, 6-4, 6-4.
In the final match of the day, Vlad Leopard (Carnikava, Latvia) took a 6-2, 7-6 (9-7) decision over Averka in sixth singles play.
BY THE NUMBERS
- Junior Wyatt Towle (Woburn, Mass.) won his exhibition match 6-1, 6-1.
- The Beacons earned their fifth-straight win over the Vikings and improved to 12-22 all-time against Salem State.
- Bhatotia was making his first appearance since April 7, when the team played Suffolk University. He had missed four-straight matches prior to today's action, after traveling home to India.
- With the win, UMass Boston ensured at least a .500 record in Little East play for the fifth-straight year. The Beacons had just one year of .500 or above play in LEC action in the previous 11 seasons.
WHO'S NEXT
UMass Boston will travel to Johnson & Wales University on Thursday at 3:30 p.m., in their second-to-last regular season non-conference match.
