#3 Men's Tennis Drops 5-1 Decision to #2 NYIT Sunday in NCAA Tournament
Links: Box Score
BROOKVILLE, N.Y. – The third-seeded Merrimack College men's tennis team lost to second-seeded and No. 13/18 NYIT, 5-1, on Sunday afternoon in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament. The Warriors end the 2015 campaign with a 14-7 overall record, winning a tournament game for the fourth straight year.
The Basics
Score: Merrimack 1 | NYIT 5
Records: Merrimack (14-7) | #13/18 NYIT (15-7)
Location: LIU Post Tennis Courts | Brookville, N.Y.
NCAA Tournament: East Regional
Queen's Pod
#5 Chesnut Hill def. #4 Queen's (N.Y.), 5-2
NYIT Pod (First Round)
#3 Merrimack def. #6 Adelphi, 5-1
#2 NYIT def. #7 UDC, 5-0
NYIT Pod (Second Round)
#2 NYIT def. #3 Merrimack, 5-1
How It Happened
Merrimack entered the contest hoping to avenge an 8-1 regular-season loss to Bears. NYIT, ranked 14th in the nation at the time, won every match with the exception of No. 1 doubles.
The Warriors also won at No. 1 on Sunday afternoon with sophomore Steven Francis (Perth, Australia) and freshman Mikhail Belov (Krasnoarmeyskoy, Russia) defeating their opposition, 9-7.
The Navy and Gold could have taken momentum into singles as the most contentious match came at No. 2 doubles. Captains Vince Bellino (Amesbury, Mass.) and Miguel Belfort (Caracas, Venezuela) took their contest to a tiebreaker, but the Bears prevailed by a 9-8 score, 7-5 in the tiebreaker.
Merrimack needed to win four of six singles matches to upset the hosts, but NYIT won the first three singles matches to finish to put away the Warriors. The Bears took No. 1, 4 and 6 singles to come away with the 5-1 victory and move on in the tournament.
Results
Doubles
1. Steven Francis/Mikhail Belov (MER) def. Julio Pulido/Tomas Lieb (NYIT) 9-7
2. Matej Selecky/Rafal Charkiewicz (NYIT) def. Vince Bellino/Miguel Belfort (MER) 9-8 (7-5)
3. Nico Jubera/David Jiang (NYIT) def. Nick Majewski/Frank Vega (MER) 8-3
Singles
No. 2, 3, and 5 singles did not finish
1. Julio Pulido (NYIT) def. Steven Francis (MER) 6-2, 6-2
4. Rafal Charkiewicz (NYIT) def. Vince Bellino (MER) 6-2, 6-0
6. Nico Jubera (NYIT) def. Nick Majewski (MER) 6-1, 6-0
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