GORHAM, Maine—UMass Boston men's tennis snapped a five-match losing streak against three-time defending Little East Conference Champion University of Southern Maine Saturday, by earning a 6-3 win over the Huskies.
THE BASICS
UMass Boston 6, Southern Maine 3
(UMass Boston 5-6)
(Southern Maine 0-6)
HOW IT HAPPENED
With the Huskies down a player, UMass Boston started the day with a 2-0 lead. They capitalized on the advantage by winning two of the three doubles points en-route to their first win over Southern Maine since 2013.
Sophomore Tin Tran (Quincy, Mass.) was the lone Beacon to go 2-0 on the day, as he earned wins at second doubles and fourth singles.
Southern Maine evened the match score at 1-1 to start the day, when Kyle Curley and Sam Holland defeated Austin DeLasse (Mexico City, Mexico) and Alexander Comerchero (Brookline, Mass.) 8-4 at first doubles.
The Beacons wrestled the lead right back at second doubles, with Josh Bhasin (Tulsa, Okla.) and Tran downing Andy MacEachern and Chase Orava 8-4.
With the forfeit win at sixth singles pushing the lead to 3-1, UMass Boston quickly closed out the match victory.
Junior Sanshrut Sharma (Mumbai, India) made it 4-1, as the junior rolled to a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Owen Yao.
Tran clinched the match victory with a win at fourth singles. The junior earned a 6-0, 6-0 win over Orava to extend the lead to 5-1.
Curley closed out a 2-0 day for the Huskies with a 6-2, 6-3 win at first singles.
The Beacons answered back at third singles with a three-set victory. He took the first 6-0 over MacEachern, before dropping set two 6-3. In the third set, Comerchero bounced back with a 6-1 win to take a 6-0, 3-6, 6-1 win.
In the final match to finish, Holland outlasted Bhasin in a third-set super tiebreaker 7-6 (7-4), 5-7, 10-7.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Saturday's matchup was a rematch of two of the past three LEC Championship Matches (2014 and 2016).
- With the loss, UMass Boston snapped a five-game losing streak against the Huskies and improved to 5-15 all-time.
- Tran registered his second 2-0 match of the season in the win. Freshman Ray Platteel (Holbrook, Mass.) also went 2-0, but both of his wins came by forfeit (third doubles and sixth singles).
- The Beacons are the lone LEC team left undefeated (3-0) and sit in first place, one-game ahead of Bridgewater State University (2-1).
WHO'S NEXT
UMass Boston will host Johnson & Wales University (R.I.) on Tuesday at 3 p.m. in a non-conference matchup.
