April 13, 2005

Despite a notable win at 1st doubles from the freshmen tandem of Parker Olen and Nick Bayrouty, the Endicott men's tennis team lost to Colby-Sawyer, 1-6, at home yesterday.

Olen and Bayrouty have looked strong in other outings, but played particularly well on this day, defeating Colby-Sawyer's Chris Pugliese (the reigning CCC Player-of-the-Year), and his partner Topher Dubay, 8-4. "They played a textbook doubles match in many respects," said Coach Mark Herlihy. "They kept the ball low, controlled the net, served and returned well, and made very few mistakes. If they play that way in our remaining matches, they'll win some more matches."

Senior co-captain Ben Bettez looked good even though he lost his three set match, 2-6, 7-6, 3-6. Bettez was down 2-5 in the second set, but rallied, forced a tie-breaker, and then won it to push the match to a third set. "Ben's aggressiveness paid off," said Herlihy. "He kept coming to net, and did a good job putting balls away, especially as the match wore on."

The match started outdoors, but when snow began to fall and the courts became unplayable the teams moved into the Post Center's Field House and played to a decision. The Gulls lost in straight sets at \#3, \#4, and \#6 singles. Neither \#1 nor \#2 singles was contested.

The team travels to Gordon College on Thursday for its next match.