BOSTON, Mass.—In a matchup of the winners of the past three Little East Conference Championships, UMass Boston men's tennis took two-time defending champion University of Southern Maine to the brink, before falling 5-4 at the B.C. High Tennis Courts.
THE BASICS
Southern Maine 5, UMass Boston 4
(UMass Boston 2-8, 0-1)
(Southern Maine 4-0, 2-0)
HOW IT HAPPENED
Southern Maine earned their 18th consecutive win over a Little East Conference opponent, with a come-from-behind win during singles play.
The Beacons took second and third doubles and were all tied up at 4-4 with only third singles still going. Southern Maine's Eric Berry-Sandelin held on though, as the senior took the final two games from Jack Wang (Suzhou, China) to earn a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 win, and a 5-4 overall win.
Senior Zeke Hernandez (Baytown, Texas) earned a pair of wins for the Beacons in his first LEC action. Sophomore Sanshrut Sharma (Mumbai, India) was the only other Beacon to win a singles match, as the Beacons played without regular lineup player Adhirath Bhatotia (New Delhi, India.).
Things started out well for UMass Boston, who raced out to a 2-0 lead in doubles play.
Hector Mata (San Salvador, El Salvador) and Hernandez teamed up for an 8-3 win over Robert Stowe and Sebastian Taylor at number three doubles.
The Beacons tacked on a second win at second doubles, as Austin DeLasse (Mexico City, Mexico) and Guang Huang (Quincy, Mass.) delivered an 8-4 win over Berry-Sandelin and Holland.
Southern Maine got themselves back into the match at number one doubles, with Tyler Adams and Kyle Curley grabbing an 8-4 victory over Josh Bhasin (Tulsa, Okla.) and Wang.
Adams evened the match at 2-2 with a quick win at number one singles. The two-time defending LEC Player of the Year won his 31st-consecutive singles match, with a 6-0, 6-0 win over DeLasse.
UMass Boston took the lead right back at sixth singles, with Hernandez earning a commanding 6-2, 6-1 win over Stowe.
The Huskies tied the match for a second time at second singles, with Curley making it 3-3, thanks to a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Bhasin.
Holland gave the Huskies their first lead of the day with a win at fourth singles. The sophomore defeated Vlad Leopard (Carnikava, Latvia) 6-2, 6-2.
The Beacons wouldn't go down without a fight though, as Sharma battled back from a 7-5, 4-2 deficit, to earn a 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 win at fifth singles.
All eyes then turned to court three. Third singles was a back-and-forth match, with Berry-Sandelin initially leading 6-4, 4-3. Wang came back to take the second set 6-4 and led 2-1 in the third, before Berry-Sandelin won the final five games. In the end, he earned a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 win.
BY THE NUMBERS
- In Southern Maine's 16 wins over LEC opponents the last two seasons, the Huskies had dropped just seven points. This season, Southern Maine has dropped seven points in their first two conference matches.
- Hernandez won a pair of points in the same match for just the second time in his career. He now has five wins on the season.
- Sharma continued to dominate opponents in singles, as he improved to a Beacons' best 5-2 on the year. After dropping his first singles match, Sharma has won five of six, including earning his first three-set win today.
- With the win, Southern Maine improved to 14-4 against the Beacons. The Huskies have won four in a row against UMass Boston, including the 2014 LEC Championship Match.
WHO'S NEXT
UMass Boston will take to the road on Monday, as they will take on Rhode Island College at 3 p.m. The Beacons have won four-straight against their LEC rivals.
