Men's Tennis Downs UMass Boston, 6-3

BOSTON, Mass. – The Bridgewater State University men's tennis team secured the second seed in next week's Little East Conference Tournament as the visiting Bears downed UMass Boston, 6-3, in the regular season finale for both teams on Saturday at the Boston College High School Tennis Courts.

Bridgewater improves to 8-5 on the season and 4-2 in the Little East, while UMass slips to 8-6 overall and 3-3 in conference play.

With the loss, the Beacons fell into a three-way tie for third place in the LEC standings with Southern Maine and Western Connecticut State.  With each team completely even after the first set of tie-breakers the third, fourth, and fifth seeds of next week's tournament will be decided by a coin toss.  The result of that coin toss will be released later this weekend, with the first round of the tournament set to begin on Tuesday.

In Saturday's match, Bridgewater State gained the early 2-1 advantage after taking the second and third doubles matches.  UMass Boston's David Hernandez and Charles Lai continued their strong play at first doubles by earning an 8-3 win.  Sean Bleau and Jesse Gotlib won at second flight for Bridgewater, while Nicholas Desisto and Cody Farrell earned the win at third flight.

Led by Mike Zagame's 6-3, 6-4 win at second singles, Bridgewater would capture four out of the six singles flights to secure the win.  The Bears also received straight set wins from Gotlib, Farrell and Desisto at the fourth through sixth flights respectively.

Hernandez continued his dominant play for UMass as he swept his first singles opponent with a 6-0, 6-0 decision.  .  Laie earned a hard fought win at third flight with a 7-6 (7-3), 6-1 decision.

Once the tie-breaker has been announced, the Beacons will find out if they will be hosting or on the road in the first round of the tournament which is slated to begin next Tuesday.  Bridgewater State and UMass Dartmouth both earned first round byes, with Dartmouth earning the top-seed and the regular season title.

Start time for the quarterfinal round of next week's conference tournament will be announced later this weekend.