RINDGE, N.H. (March 30, 2021) -- The Penmen of Southern New Hampshire made the trek westward on Route 101 on Tuesday afternoon with a 38-match winning streak in Northeast-10 Conference play in tow. Thanks to the Franklin Pierce University men's tennis team, they headed back eastward on Tuesday evening with the counter reset to zero. In their season opener, the Ravens chalked up a 5-1 victory, dealing the Penmen their first NE10 defeat in 2174 days, dating to a 6-3 loss to Assumption on April 17, 2015.

With the win, Franklin Pierce -- ranked seventh in this week's ITA East Region rankings -- opens its season at 1-0 (1-0 NE10), while SNHU -- ranked second in the region -- falls to 1-1 (1-1 NE10). In addition to snapping the run of 38 straight NE10 wins, the Franklin Pierce victory also ended a SNHU streak of 47 straight victories over NE10 institutions, including postseason contests. The Penmen are the four-time defending NE10 champions and have participated in the NE10 title match seven of the last nine seasons.

The teams traded a pair of doubles matches to start things off. At second doubles, graduate student Kevin Denecheau (Artigueloutan, France) and freshman Ivan Bernal (Madrid, Spain) picked up a 6-4 win for the Ravens, over junior Fernando Torres and senior Guido Janssen. SNHU struck back at first doubles, as graduate student brothers Bas and Willem van Biezen rolled to a 6-2 victory over graduate student Felipe Carvalho (Sao Paulo, Brazil) and sophomore Alejandro Ortiz (Madrid, Spain).

This left the doubles point up for grabs at third doubles. Franklin Pierce opened up a 1-0 lead in the match after seniors Yuval Barak (Zicron Ya'akov, Israel) and Nkrumah Patrick (Tunapuna, Trinidad and Tobago) pulled out a 6-3 win over sophomore Zachary Duboulay and freshman Sam Goddard.

Franklin Pierce took control in singles play relatively quickly, with a pair of straight-set wins to increase the lead to 3-0. At third singles, it was a 6-2, 6-4 win for Bernal over Jannsen. Meanwhile, at fifth singles, Barak took care of Goddard, 6-3, 6-0.

The other three singles contests were all three sets and, in effect, were even closer than that, as each featured a tiebreak along the way as well. Fortunately for the Ravens, they never had to sweat things out all that much, as the first of the three contests to go final went their way, which wrapped up the team match. Sophomore Joel Cladera (Palma de Mallorca, Spain) chalked up a 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-4 win over Torres at fourth singles to give Franklin Pierce an insurmountable, 4-0 lead.

Franklin Pierce added another win at second singles, as Denecheau rallied past Bas van Biezen, 2-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4. SNHU picked up its only point of the day at first singles, where Willem van Biezen fought back for a 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (1) victory over Carvalho.

The Ravens are scheduled to return to action on Saturday, April 3, at home against Saint Michael's at 1 p.m.