By Jim Fenton
BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University men's tennis team has had a perfect April.
After beginning the month with a 2-4 record, the Bears have gone 8-0, winning a second Little East Conference regular-season championship in three years along the way.
BSU (10-4, 6-0 conference) is the No. 1 seed in the Little East, two wins away from a trip to the NCAA Division III tournament.
The Bears open the Little East tourney with a semifinal-round match against fifth-seeded Western Connecticut State University (6-14, 2-4) on Thursday at 1 p.m.
The match was originally scheduled for the Rosen Memorial Tennis Courts but has been switched indoors to the Weymouth Club due to the forecast of rain.
Since a March 31 non-conference loss at Roger Williams, BSU has been rolling and no Little East opponent could get any closer than 5-2.
The Bears have plenty of experience, including four players who were on the championship roster in 2024, a key newcomer in freshman Will Horton (Lakeville, Mass.), who is playing No. 1 singles and No. 2 doubles, and a deep bench.
"We're playing really great," said BSU coach David Purpura. "The guys turned it up on this last stretch.
"The strength of the group all spring has been our depth. It's important that it extends beyond our starting six. We've got guys who are pretty talented who are waiting in the wings and are pushing those guys every day in practice.
"Our one-through-12 has done a really good job of practicing with purpose all spring and really hitting their stride down the stretch."
Horton is 9-4 and 5-1 in the Little East at No. 1 while senior Adam Beatrice (Rockland, Mass.), the Most Valuable Player of the '24 tourney, is 6-6 and 4-1 in the conference at No. 2.
Junior Khiem Nguyen (Burlington, Vt.) plays No. 3 singles where he is 6-6 and 4-4 in the Little East and junior Tom Ayson (Plymouth, Mass.) is 8-3 and 6-0 against conference opponents.
At No. 5, junior Anthony Lucas (Weymouth, Mass.) is 7-3 and 6-3 in the Little East while senior Ryan Hebert (Taunton, Mass.) leads the team in wins, going 10-2, and is 7-2 in the conference.
The three doubles teams are a combined 16-2 in the Little East with Hebert and Horton 6-0 at No. 2 and the duos of Beatrice and Nguyen at No. 1 and Ayson and Lucas at No. 3 owning 5-1 marks.
"We feel like we're competitive at every position," said Purpura, whose team is 17-1 in Little East regular-season matches the past three seasons. "That's your goal, to never have a weak spot in the lineup, and these guys have really done a great job of maintaining that."
BSU defeated Rhode Island College, 5-1, for the tourney championship in '24, then lost to the Anchormen by the same score last spring in the title match.
Beatrice, Nguyen, Lucas, Ayson and Hebert were in the lineup for that defeat in 2025. Beatrice, Ayson, Hebert and senior Tyler Barros (Somerset, Mass.) were members of the title team that reached the NCAA tourney for the first time in program history two years ago.
"Any playoff experience is really great because nerves can become a factor," said Purpura. "Having that is huge. All that experience adds up.
"We have a blend of veterans who have a very vivid memory of getting to the finals and losing last year and injecting a freshman in Will playing at the top. With every shared experience and goal you check off, you play more for each other. They enjoy each other and have become close as friends and are going to fight to keep extending their season one more day as the spring goes on."
A win on Thursday would give the Bears 11 victories for the first time since going 11-7 in 2009. It would also give BSU its first nine-match winning streak since going 9-0 in 2006.
BSU and Western Connecticut State will be meeting in the tourney for the first time since May 1, 2014.
The sixth-seeded Bears lost to third-seeded Western Connecticut State, 5-1, in the quarterfinal round. The quarterfinal-round match had to be moved indoors at Yale University because of rain.
The two teams also met in the 2012 tournament with the match being moved inside due to the weather. Bridgewater earned a 5-4 semifinal round victory at the Dartmouth Indoor Tennis Club
The Wolves earned a spot in the semifinal round this season with a 4-3 win over Salem State on Tuesday. They lost at home to BSU on April 11, 7-0.
Western Connecticut State has not made the Little East championship round since losing in 2011.
If BSU wins, it will host the Little East final on Saturday afternoon against either RIC or third-seeded UMass Boston, who play in Providence, R.I., Thursday.