Colchester, Vermont (3/26/22) – After dropping their last four matches, the Franklin Pierce men's tennis team found the win column once again with a close fought victory at Saint Michael's College on Saturday afternoon in Vermont.

The win comes from victories at #1 doubles, as well as first, second, fifth and sixth singles. With the triumph, the Ravens improve to 4-4 this season, as Saint Michael's drops to 4-8.

The victorious pair for first doubles was sophomore Ivan Bernal (Madrid, Spain) and graduate student Kevin Denecheau (Artigueloutan, France), winning six sets for the victory against the Purple Knights pair of Jackson Moser and Michael Rosen, who won four sets.

Across the court in #1 singles, Felipe Carvalho (Sao Paulo, Brazil) battled back from a first set loss to win the final two sets, avoiding a tiebreaker in the third set 7-5 for the victory.  At #2 singles, Ivan Bernal claimed another win on the day after a back and forth first two sets, winning and losing 7-5 after battling to 5-all in both. In a more decisive fashion, the third came at a 6-3 final, securing the win for Bernal.

The bottom two singles matches also came at 2-1 set victories, with senior Nkrumah Patrick (Tunapuna, Trinidad and Tobago) and junior Alejandro Ortiz (Madrid, Spain) declaring the victories. The Ravens senior claimed the first set 6-3, but was met with a bounce back effort from Michael Rosen in the second set, losing 6-4. Patrick was able to re-find his rhythm and secure a break-point victory in the third set, also by 6-4. For Ortiz, the junior powered his way to a lop-sided 6-1 first set win, but was also caught off guard with a strong response from Purple Knight Stefan Barre, who returned with a 6-4 win in set two. The third set was played all the way to a 6-all score, with the tiebreaking game victory going to Ortiz to help the Ravens to the overall win.

Men's Tennis returns to action tomorrow afternoon at home, and will battle Le Moyne at the Monadnock Indoor Tennis Club at 4 PM E.T.