Men's Tennis Ousted at Newbury
BROOKLINE, Mass. – The second-seeded Newbury College men's tennis team defeated third-seeded Mitchell College, 6-3, Thursday afternoon in the semifinals of the 2014 New England Collegiate Conference Championship.
Newbury advances to the finals and will face top-seeded Regis College on Saturday, April 26. Mitchell's finished the 2014 campaign with an overall record of 8-5.
Newbury jumped out to an early lead by taking a pair of doubles matches. Christian Repunte and Antonios Tran led the way with an 8-2 victory in first doubles. However, freshman Adam Diaz and senior Randy Coons evened up the match with an 8-3 win at second doubles for the Mariners. However, Newbury's John Morgan and Wayne Gethers claimed third doubles, edging out freshman Orson Sinclair and junior ChrisMcKeon, 8-3.
After falling at third doubles, Sinclair came back to knock off Morgan at fourth singles, 6-2, 6-2, to even up the match at 2-2. Moments later Diaz gave the Mariners a 3-2 lead with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Gerard Font-Raventos, but the lead was short lived.
Repunte answered and tied up the contest by knocking off sophomore Graham Cavanaugh at second doubles, 6-4, 6-2, before Gethers gave the Nighthawks the lead with a two-set victory at sixth singles.
Joey Verdon sealed the win for the Nighthawks with a two-set, fifth singles victory over McKeon, 6-2, 6-3. After Verdon sealed the match, Tran held off a valiant come-back attempt by Mitchell senior Zachary Simmons to claim first singles. Tran grabbed a 6-4 win in the first set, but Simmons took the second 6-4 to set the stage for a third set. Tran closed the door quickly, winning 6-1 for Newbury's final point.
Newbury improved to 12-4 on the year. The Nighthawks will make their first NECC Championship finals appearance against defending champ Regis, which finished the regular season undefeated in league play.
