Men's Tennis Suffers 8-1 Loss to No. 14 NYIT in Spring Opener Saturday Afternoon
Links: Box Score
MIDDLETON, Mass. – The Merrimack College men's tennis team opened up its championship season on Saturday afternoon with an 8-1 loss to nationally ranked New York Institute of Technology at the Northeast Tennis Center in Middleton, Mass.
The Basics
Score: Merrimack 1 | NYIT 8
Records: Merrimack (1-1, 1-0 NE-10) | NYIT (4-1, 0-0 ECC)
Location: Middleton, Mass. | Northeast Tennis Center
What They Said
Head coach Aaron Bergeron: "I thought we came out pretty strong in the doubles. Steve and Mike played a really nice match at No. 1 and third doubles battled hard. We were competitive with the singles but they just made more balls than us. I think our guys learned a lot from this match and I'm excited to see this young team continue to develop."
How It Happened
The Warriors began the afternoon with the first career doubles victory for sophomore Steven Francis (Perth, Australia), who was playing in his first career match with the Warriors. His partner, Mikhail Belov (Krasnoarmeyskoy, Russia) won his first career dual-meet doubles match.
After that, the match turned in the favor of the 14th-ranked Bears out of the East Coast Conference. Senior captain Vince Bellino (Amesbury, Mass.), paired with freshman Frank Vega (Lima, Peru) lost at No. 2, 8-0. Vega was making his Merrimack debut as well. Sophomores Nick Majewski (Brewster, Mass.) and Tayyab Sheikh (Longmeadow, Mass.) played a strong match at No. 3, and even led at 6-5, but NYIT came back to secure the 8-6 victory.
In singles play the Bears, who beat NE-10 opponent Southern New Hampshire on Friday, asserted itself on Merrimack. Francis fell 6-1, 6-3 in making his debut at No. 1 singles. Below put up a strong fight at No. 2 singles, winning the lone set for the Warriors in singles play. Vega, Bellino and Sheikh lost at No 3-5, respectively, for the Navy and Gold.
Results
Doubles
1. Steven Francis/ Mikhail Belov (MER) def. Nicolas Jubera/David Jiang (NYIT) 8-5
2. Matej Selecky / Rafal Charkiewicz (NYIT) def. Frank Vega/Vince Bellino (MER) 0-8
3. Tomas Lieb/Julio Pulido (NYIT) def. Tayyab Sheikh /Nick Majewski (MER) 8-6
Singles
1. Julio Pulido (NYIT) def. Steven Francis (MER) 1-6, 3-6
2. David Jiang (NYIT) def. Mikhail Belov (MER) 4-6, 6-4, 6-1
3. Matej Selecky (NYIT) def. Frank Vega (MER) 0-6, 1-6
4. Rafal Charkiewicz (NYIT) def. Vince Bellino (MER) 1-6, 2-6
5. Nicolas Jubera (NYIT) def. Tayyab Sheikh (MER) 1-6, 3-6
6. Tomas Lieb (NYIT) def. N/A (MER) withdraw (inj.)
Up Next
The Warriors will begin their spring break trip in Florida with a contest against Saint Leo at 11 a.m. from Saint Leo, Fla. Merrimack will play three times that week, culminating in Saint Petersburg against Eckerd.
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