Men's Tennis Advances to NECC Finals
NEW LONDON, Conn. – Top-seeded Mitchell College defeated fourth-seeded Becker College by an 8-1 final in the semifinals of the New England Collegiate Conference Men's Tennis Championship on Wednesday afternoon at the Mitchell Tennis Courts.
Mitchell (10-1 overall) cruised to its third win over the Hawks (5-10 overall) this season and advances to the finals of the NECC Championship. The Mariners will host second-seeded Regis College on Saturday, April 28 at 2 p.m. The two teams split regular season meetings and both owned 9-1 records in conference play.
Mitchell started its semifinals match by sweeping all three doubles points, with freshman Rajan Bawa and junior Rocco Devona leading the charge at the No. 1 spot. The duo defeated Branden Parkhouse and Timothy Howard by an 8-1 final.
The other two doubles matches were more closely contested. Seniors Tyler Engleberg and Alexander Fusco topped Brian Piquette and Jake Gilbert by an 8-4 score while senior Andrew Small and freshman Chris McKeon edged David Graham and Jason Alera by an 8-6 final.
The Mariners put the match away by winning five of six singles points. Both Bawa and Devona lost only one game en route to victories over Howard and Gilbert, respectively, at the top two spots. Engleberg and junior Randy Coons also won in straight sets, the former defeating Parkhouse by finals of 6-3, 6-4 at No. 3 while the latter won 6-2, 6-3 over Devon Dubuque at No. 6.
The remaining two matches both were both determined by super tiebreakers in lieu of a third set. Becker picked up its lone point at the No. 4 spot as Piquette rallied from a set down against Small to win by scores of 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 1-0 (10-7). In the closest match of the day, Fusco outlasted Graham to win 7-6 (7-5), 5-7, 1-0 (10-6) at the No. 5 position.
