SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The Endicott men's tennis defeated CCC opponent Western New England 5-4 on Monday afternoon after the Gulls took two out of three doubles matches before freshman Nicholas Eherts (New Milford, Conn.) won his #6 singles matches 6-3, 6-4 to get the match-clinching fifth point.
Endicott improved 6-5 (2-1 CCC) on the year and will look to win back-to-back matches for the first time since the first two contests of Spring Tennis Fest down in Hilton Head when they host conference rival Curry on Wednesday, April 15th at 3:00 p.m.
At the #1 and #3 doubles flights, Endicott edged Western New England 8-6 to take a 2-1 lead going into singles play. Two-time CCC Rookie of the Week winner Chris Kirkpatrick (Newburyport, Mass.) and top doubles partner junior Michael Dolph (Stratford, Conn.) defeated the Golden Bears duo of senior PJ Nassar (Longmeadow, Mass.) and junior Andres Otero (Caracas, Venezuela). At #3 doubles, senior Michael Lauretano (Winchester, Mass.) and sophomore Sean McAndrews (Vineyard Haven, Mass.) closed out doubles play with a win over Western New England's senior duo of Chris Spear (Windsor, Conn.) and Greg Tischofer (Portland, Conn.).
Kirkpatrick won his #1 singles match 6-0, 6-3 to push the Gulls lead up to 3-1 before Western New England took #2 singles to make it a one-point match. Dolph took #3 singles in straight sets 6-2, 6-1 to pull Endicott within a point of securing an important conference win. Eherts managed to finish his match next and secured the win by beating Tischofer 6-3, 6-4 at the sixth-singles flight.
