Northeast-10 Men's Tennis Championship Central

MANCHESTER, N.H. (April 27, 2021) -- For the first time since 2005, the Franklin Pierce University men's tennis team will return to the final round of the Northeast-10 Conference Championship. The third-seeded Ravens went on the road for the semifinal round on Tuesday afternoon and took down second-seeded Southern New Hampshire, 4-0. Franklin Pierce will be in search of its first-ever NE10 title, after finishing as runner-up in 2003 and 2005.

With the win, Franklin Pierce improves to 7-1 and advances to meet top seed Le Moyne in Saturday's final. The Dolphins and Ravens will meet at 1 p.m. at Nottingham High School in Syracuse, N.Y., with the NE10 title and an automatic berth to the NCAA Championship on the line.

With the loss, SNHU falls to 8-2 and will have to await word on a possible at-large NCAA berth. It was the first-ever loss for SNHU on its current home courts, where the Penmen now hold a 20-1 record.

The Ravens took two out of the three doubles matches to claim the doubles point to open play. Third doubles went in the books first, where seniors Yuval Barak (Zicron Ya'akov, Israel) and Nkrumah Patrick (Tunapuna, Trinidad and Tobago) swept away sophomore Noah Dubitzky and freshman Sam Goddard. SNHU fought back at second doubles, as junior Fernando Torres and senior Guido Janssen squeaked out a 7-5 victory over freshman Ivan Bernal (Madrid, Spain) and graduate student Kevin Denecheau (Artigueloutan, France), 7-5.

As a result, the doubles point came down to first doubles, which was also a tight contest. Ultimately, graduate student Felipe Carvalho (Sao Paulo, Brazil) and junior Preston Gordon (Essex Junction, Vt.) pulled out the doubles point for the Ravens with a 6-4 win over graduate student brothers Bas and Willem van Biezen.

Singles play featured several tight matches, but also a pair of blowouts which helped edge Franklin Pierce closer to victory. At sixth singles, Patrick cruised past Dubitzky, 6-1, 6-2. It was also relatively smooth sailing at second singles, where Denecheau, the NE10 Rookie of the Year, took care of Willem van Biezen, 6-0, 7-5.

The remaining singles matches were all more closely contested, but the Ravens needed just one more point to close out the contest. The point would come via a three-set victory at third singles, where Bernal rallied past Janssen, 1-6, 6-1, 7-5, to wrap things up.

First, fourth and fifth singles were all left unfinished after the Ravens closed out the victory.