Men's Tennis Pulls Out Tight Victory At Eckerd, 5-4
ST. PETERSBURG, FLA– The Merrimack men's tennis team pulled out a tight victory on Sunday morning at Eckerd as they downed the home team by the score of 5-4. With the win, Merrimack improves to 4-2 overall and 3-0 in Northeast-10 Conference play.
The Warriors and Tritons split their six singles matches with each team winning three. In number one singles action, Miguel Belfort (Caracas, Venezuela) proved to be too much for his opponent as he finished with the 6-2, 6-4 win. After back-to-back losses for the Warriors, Chris Barnhart (Longmeadow, Mass.) got Merrimack back on track with his big victory over Ben Levy, 6-1, 6-0. Vince Bellino (Amesbury, Mass.) also picked up a dominating win as he downed Jonathan Cheng by the score of 6-1, 6-3.
The Warriors picked up the deciding points in doubles action as they were able to win two of three matches. The pairing of Bellion and Barnhart stayed hot for the Warriors as they won an easy match by the score of 8-1. In the decisive match, Belfort and Chris Toegemann (Narragansett, RI) came through with the 8-5 win, to seal the road non conference win for Merrimack.
The Warriors will return to the courts on Monday in Florida as they will travel to take on Rollins College at 3 p.m.
Singles
1) Miguel Belfort (Merrimack) def. Dylan Randazzo (EC) 6-2, 6-4
2) Stephen Felman (EC) def. Matt Pronesti (Merrimack) 6-8 (7-5) 7-6 (8-6)
3) Frazier Springfield (EC) def. Matt Lipinski (Merrimack) 6-3, 6-4
4) Chris Barnhart (Merrimack): def. Ben Levy (EC) 6-1, 6-0
5) Vince Bellino (Merrimack) def. Jonathan Cheng (EC) 6-1, 6-3
6) Luke Burton (EC) def. Chris Toegemann (Merrimack) 6-2, 6-4
Doubles
1) Randazzo/Felman (EC) def. Lipinski/Pronesti (Merrimack) 9-8 (7-4)
2) Bellino/Barnhart (Merrimack) def. Levy/Burton (EC) 8-1
3) Toegemann/Belfort (Merrimack) def. Cheng/Springfield (EC) 8-5
