Men's Tennis Wraps Up Regular Season with 8-1 LEC Win Over UMass Boston

By Jim Fenton

BOSTON, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University men's tennis team clinched second place in the Little East Conference on the final day of the regular season.

The Bears defeated the University of Massachusetts Boston, 8-1, Friday afternoon at the BC High Tennis Courts.

BSU and UMass Boston had begun the day tied for second place behind Rhode Island College.

After defeating the Beacons for the fifth straight time, the Bears have an opening-round bye in the Little East tournament.

BSU, the defending champion, will host a semifinal-round match on Thursday afternoon.

The Bears (7-4 overall) went 5-1 in the Little East, one game behind RIC (6-0). UMass Boston is 6-7 and went 4-2 in the conference.

BSU won five singles matches and all three doubles matches.

No. 2 singles player junior Tom Ayson (Plymouth, Mass.) defeated freshman Victor Xu (Bolton, Mass.). The junior dropped the opening set in a tie-breaker, 6-7 (7-9) before winning, 6-0, 6-4.

At No. 3 singles, sophomore Khiem Nguyen (Burlington, Vt.) won for the Bears over junior Maxwell Dill (Glen Ellyn, Ill.), 6-1, 7-6 (7-5).

Sophomore Anthony Lucas (Weymouth, Mass.) was a 6-0, 6-1 winner at No. 4 singles over freshman James Tiger Li (Quincy, Mass.) while junior Ryan Hebert (Taunton, Mass.) defeated sophomore Joseph Malone (Dennis, Mass.) at No. 5 singles, 6-3, 7-5.

Also winning was senior Matthew Krampf (Littleton, Mass.) at No. 6 singles over Shrenith Saravana Rakshana (Bengaluru, India) in tightly-contested match, 7-6 (7-1), 7-6 (11-9).

UMass Boston freshman Dominik Dwyer (Dedham, Mass.) won No. 1 singles over junior Adam Beatrice (Rockland, Mass.), 7-5, 6-4.

The first doubles team of Beatrice and Nguyen won over Dwyer and Xu, 8-3, while Ayson and Lucas teamed at No. 2 doubles to win, 8-4, over Dill and Rakshana.

Hebert and freshman Tyler Rocchio (Attleboro, Mass.) won No. 3 doubles, 8-2, over Tiger Li and Malone.

Nguyen and Lucas both finished the regular season 5-1 in Little East competition, while the doubles tandem of Hebert and Rocchio went 4-0 in the Little East.