Men's Tennis Falls to Newbury
NEW LONDON, Conn. – The Mitchell College men's tennis team dropped a 6-3 final to Newbury College on Thursday afternoon in New England Collegiate Conference action at the Mack Tennis Courts.
The win gave Newbury (10-4 overall, 7-2 NECC) a season sweep of the Mariners and clinched second place in the NECC standings. The Nighthawks have earned the right to host a first-round matchup in the upcoming NECC Championship.
Newbury won at the top two doubles spots to take a 2-1 advantage into the singles portion of the competition. The battle at No. 2 doubles was especially fierce, as Gerard Font-Raventos and Joey Verdon were down 6-3 before rallying back to win 9-7 over Mitchell's Adam Diaz and Randy Coons.
The Mariners hung around thanks to a pair of wins at No. 3 and 4 singles, where Diaz and freshman Orson Sinclair each triumphed in straight sets. Mitchell almost grabbed another point at No. 2 singles after Graham Cavanaugh took the first set off Christian Repunte. However, Repunte regrouped and won the final two sets easily for a 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 victory.
Newbury led 4-3 with the final two singles matches still out on the courts. The Nighthawks secured the winning point when Verdon defeated Michael Berman 6-3, 6-3 at No. 5, and Wayne Gethers later finished off Coons 6-1, 6-4 to wrap things up at No. 6.
Antonios Tran picked up wins at the top singles and doubles spots for Newbury.
The Mitchell duo of Sinclair and junior Chris McKeon won at No. 3 doubles.
Mitchell (6-4 overall, 4-4 NECC) will next host Becker College on Friday, April 18 at 3 p.m. Newbury wraps up regular season play at home against Lesley University on Saturday, April 19 at 11 a.m.