Men's Tennis Suffers 5-2 Defeat vs. Undefeated SNHU on Senior Day Wednesday
Links: Box Score
MIDDLETON, Mass. – With a battle for first place in the Northeast-10 Conference on the line Wednesday at the Northeast Tennis Center, the Merrimac k College men's tennis team hosted Southern New Hampshire in the home regular-season finale for the Navy and Gold. The program honored its three seniors, commemorating the careers of James Hook (Lynnfield, Mass.) captain Nick Majewski (Brewster, Mass.) and Tayyab Sheikh (Longmeadow, Mass.) before the match, but the visiting Penmen capitalized on two narrow doubles wins to eventually prevail, 5-2.
The Basics
Score: Southern N.H. 5, Merrimack 2
Records: Merrimack (7-8, 5-2 NE10) | SNHU (13-6, 8-0 NE10)
Location: Northeast Tennis Center | Middleton, Mass.
How It Happened (Doubles)
- No. 1 –Majewski and junior Mikhail Belov (Krasnoarmeyskoy, Russia) – the fifth-ranked doubles tandem in the East Region – went the distance with SNHU's top-flight pairing, battling through a 16-game match. The visitors won the final game to collect a 9-7 win, securing a lead for SNHU entering singles play
- No. 2 –Junior Frank Vega (Lima, Peru) and freshman Alex Fedorov (Guilderland, N.Y.) suffered their first league loss of the season at second doubles, dropping an 8-6 decision to the Penmen
- No. 3 – Sheikh and sophomore Alex Slobin (Fairfield, Conn.) improved to 3-3 in NE10 play with an 8-4 win at the final flight, giving the Warriors a 1-0 lead in the match as the first completed contest of the day
How It Happened (Singles)
- No. 1 – Vega played at the first flight for the second straight match, but faced the seventh ranked singles player in the region in Tiago Fernandes, falling in straight sets (6-1, 6-0)
- No. 2 – Belov battled another regionally ranked foe in Ricardo Marreiros, his sixth head-to-head contest this season against a ranked opponent. Belov fell to a 1-0 hole, but battled to win four games in the second frame before Marreiros won his sixth game and clinched the win
- No. 3 – Majewski won at the third flight on Senior Day, taking a tightly contest opening frame (7-5), before storming past his opponent in the second set to complete the sweep (6-1). Merrimack's second-year captain took down Miguel Marreiros, the 18th-ranked singles player in the East Region
- No. 4 – The four-time NE10 Rookie of the Week got off to a hot start during the first set as Fedorov won the opener, 6-1. The Penmen's Xavier Aubron, however, recovered to win the next two frames and secured the victory for the visitors
- No. 5 – Slobin was down one set and just a game into his second at the fifth flight before the match ended
- No. 6 – On the other hand, Sheikh won his opener at sixth singles, 6-3, and secured a break during the second set to go ahead 2-0 before the match ended
Results
Doubles
Singles
1. Tiago Fernandes (SNH) def. Frank Vega (MER-M) 6-1, 6-0
2. Ricardo Marreiros (SNH) def. Mikhail Belov (MER-M) 6-2, 6-4
3. Nick Majewski (MER-M) def. Miguel Marreiros (SNH) 7-5, 6-1
4. Xavier Aubron (SNH) def. Alex Fedorov (MER-M) 1-6, 7-5, 6-1
5. Alex Slobin (MER-M) vs. Jeremy Reichentahl (SNH) 4-6, 0-1, unfinished
6. Tayyab Sheikh (MER-M) vs. Adam Courtemanche (SNH) 6-3, 2-0, unfinished
Up Next
The Navy and Gold travel to Worcester, Mass. to face Assumption College at 3 p.m. in a game that has been rescheduled twice since its original competition date of March 21.
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