BEVERLY, Mass.- With a trip to the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) semifinals to take on #2 Nichols on the line in their quarterfinal matchup, #3 Endicott staved off #6 Western New England 5-1 to advance to their fifth consecutive CCC semifinal round and third straight under head coach Jeremy Howard. After defeating the Golden Bears for the second time this season, Endicott now improves to 11-6 on the season while WNE falls to 7-8 to wrap up their 2015 campaign.
The Gulls received strong play from their First Team All-CCC Doubles team of Michael Dolph (Stratford, Conn.) and Christopher Kirkpatrick (Newburyport, Mass.) who teamed up to claim an 8-3 victory over WNE's Andres Otero (Caracas, Venezuela) and PJ Nassar (Longmeadow, Mass.) at #1 doubles. Endicott's #2 doubles team of Eric Gandrup (Sudbury, Mass.) and Eric Pierce (Barrington, R.I.) defeated WNE's Alexander Sause (Cusago, Italy) and Adam Zimmerman (South Windsor, Conn.) by a score of 8-4 to give the Gulls a 2-0 advantage in doubles before Michael Lauretano (Winchester, Mass.) and Justin Warshavsky (East Hartford, Conn.) fell in a tight 8-5 #3 doubles match to Chris Spear (Windsor, Conn.) and Greg Tischofer (Portland, Conn.) to tighten the match at 2-1.
With the slim lead, Endicott turned to their singles players to bring home the Quarterfinal win. Nicholas Eherts (New Milford, Conn.) claimed the first singles victory for the Gulls as his 6-1, 6-0 win at #6 singles over Tischofer gave Endicott a 3-1 lead. Junior Sean McAndrews (Vineyard Haven, Mass.) registered a 6-2, 6-2 straight set win at #5 singles over Zimmerman to bring the score to 4-1 with Endicott just one singles victory away from winning the match. Junior Mike Dolph, who earlier in the day was named to the All-CCC Third Team, took his #3 singles match in straight sets as well, defeating Spear 6-0, 6-2 to clinch the Quarterfinal victory for the Gulls and with it, a trip to the CCC Semifinals on Thursday.
Three matches were still undecided when Endicott claimed the win as Endicott's Kirkpatrick was down one set but locked in a tight second to Sause at #1 singles 6-2, 4-4. At #2 singles, Endicott's Pierce was leading in the second set after dropping the first in a tie break 7-6 (7-2), 0-3 to Otero while Lauretano also lost the first via tie break and was trailing WNE's Peter LeFrancois (Marlborough, Mass.) 7-6 (7-3), 2-1 in #4 singles play.
With the win, Endicott improves to 11-6 on the season while Western New England falls to 7-8. The Gulls now move on to the CCC Semifinals where they will take on #2 Nichols at Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. The match is slated to begin at 3:00 p.m.
