Men's Tennis Falls to Unbeaten Suffolk, 5-2

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The Suffolk University Men's Tennis team improved to an 8-0 overall record with a 5-4 victory over the Bridgewater State University Bears on Thursday evening.

Suffolk captured four out of six singles matches and one out of three doubles flights as the Rams extend their season-long winning streak to eight matches.

The Bears took a 2-1 edge after doubles play as the number one tandem of freshman Wesley Esthimer (Franklin, Mass.) and senior Mike Zagame (Uxbridge, Mass.) took an 8-5 decision over senior Chris Staley (London, England) and freshman Marc Winkler (Caracas, Venezuela). With the win Esthimer and Zagame improved their doubles record to 4-0 on the season. Junior Nicholas Desisto (Uxbridge, Mass.) and sophomore Cody Farrell (Scituate, Mass.) picked up the other win for the Bears with an 8-3 victory in the third doubles contest.

Sophomore Drew Reilly (Boston, Mass.) and senior Albert Buruga (Bradenton, Fla.) earned multiple wins on the evening for the Suffolk. The duo first combined for an 8-5 victory in the second doubles contest, before each won their individual singles play sets.

Reilly posted a 7-1 victory in the third set tiebreaker over freshman Sean Bleau (North Dighton, Mass.) in the third singles match.

Buruga improved his singles record to a perfect 7-0 on the season with a 6-0, 6-4 match win in the number four singles position.

Winkler and Staley earned the other two Suffolk victories in singles play for the Rams. Winkler was the victor in the top singles game as he took a 6-2 decision in the third set over Esthimer. Staley's second singles match also went to a third set as he took the match with a 6-4 win over Zagame.

Farrell and Desisto won by retirement at the fifth and sixth flights, respectively, for the Bears.  After splitting the first two sets, Farrell was leading 5-0 in the third set at number five when the match was stopped. Desisto won the first set at sixth singles, 6-3, and was trailing 4-3 in the second.

Both teams will be in conference action on Saturday with Bridgewater State taking on Salem State at 1:00pm. Suffolk will travel to Johnson & Wales University for a 10:30am match with the Wildcats in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) action.