BOSTON, Mass.—Junior Jack Wang (Suzhou, China) and freshman Josh Bhasin (Tulsa, Okla.) both went 2-0, to lead #3 men's tennis past #6 Rhode Island College in the Little East Conference Quarterfinals.
THE BASICS
#3 UMass Boston 5, #6 Rhode Island College 1
(UMass Boston 7-11)
(Rhode Island College 3-13)
HOW IT HAPPENED
After grabbing a 2-1 lead through doubles, Sanshrut Sharma (Mumbai, India.), Wang and Bhasin each made quick work of their singles opponents, to wrap up the 5-1 win in two hours and 30 minutes.
The Beacons were leading by a set in singles on all six courts when they reached the five points necessary to advance to the Little East Conference Semifinals.
With the victory, #3 UMass Boston will travel to #2 UMass Dartmouth on Thursday for a rematch of last year's LEC Semifinals. The match will be played indoors at Dartmouth Indoor Tennis, with the match beginning at 1 p.m.
UMass Boston opened the contest with an 8-2 win at second doubles, as Austin DeLasse (Mexico City, Mexico) and Guang Huang (Quincy, Mass.) easily cruised past their opponents.
At number one doubles, Bhasin and Wang knocked off Brett Taggart and Lee Tiberi 8-2.
Rhode Island College kept their playoff hopes alive, with a tiebreaker win in third doubles. Chandler Scott and Corey Duquette defeated Vlad Leopard (Carnikava, Latvia) and Hector Mata (San Salvador, El Salvador) 9-8 (7-4).
Wang quickly pushed the lead back to 3-1, as he cruised past Scott 6-1, 6-1 at number three singles.
UMass Boston added a fourth point at fifth singles, with Sharma blanking Rhode Island College's Matthew Gambardella 6-0, 6-0.
Bhasin earned his fifth-straight singles win to wrap up the match, as he handed Tiberi a 6-0, 6-2 defeat.
On the other courts, DeLasse was leading Taggart 6-2, 3-3 in first singles, Adhirath Bhatotia (New Delhi, India) led 6-1, 1-0 in fourth singles and Leopard ended with a 6-1, 3-1 edge in sixth singles.
BY THE NUMBERS
- With their win, UMass Boston improved to 5-4 all-time in Little East Conference Tournament play. The Beacons five LEC Tournament wins rank are fourth-most, just behind UMass Dartmouth (10-4), the University of Southern Maine (9-5) and Western Connecticut State University (6-5).
- The Beacons will be making their fourth-consecutive LEC Semifinal appearance.
- DeLasse and Huang improved to 4-1 at second doubles and 4-0 against conference foes.
- Sharma added his team-leading 11th singles win and seventh win against LEC opponents in seven tries.
WHO'S NEXT
UMass Boston and UMass Dartmouth will face-off in the Little East Conference Tournament for the third time in four years. The Beacons defeated the Corsairs 5-4 in the 2013 LEC Title match and fell 5-4 at UMass Dartmouth last year. This past Saturday, UMass Dartmouth defeated the Beacons 6-3 outdoors in Dartmouth.
