Men's Tennis

Box Score 

WINCHESTER, Mass. - The Norwich University tennis team dropped a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) match to Emerson, 9-0, on Saturday at the Winchester Indoor Lawn Tennis Center.

The league-leading Lions (5-3, 3-0 GNAC) swept the three doubles points and then took all six singles matches en route to the victory. The Cadets, who hung tough throughout, fall to 3-5 (2-2 GNAC) with just three regular season matches remaining on the schedule.

It marked the first time in two seasons that Norwich's Peter Hooper lost a singles match. The Cadets' top player had won 18 straight singles matches prior to dropping a heart-breaking three-set match to Allesandro Bellino at the No. 1 spot. Hooper, whose run of singles success has been remarkable, lost 3-6, 6-4, 12-10 (super tiebreak) to Bellino.

Hooper actually had three match points in the super tiebreak, but Bellino was able to come back an secure the win.

"Peter will be the first to admit that he hasn't been able to commit himself to training anywhere near as much as he did last year ,which has been evident in his matches against top players this season," said Norwich head coach Kyle Dezotell. "I think he will be very eager to get on the practice court over the next couple of weeks and I am willing to bet we won't see him lose in singles again in a Norwich uniform."

Despite the loss, Dezotell was encouraged by the way the Cadets hung tough with a talented Emerson club.

"While the 9-0 score is disappointing, we actually played pretty well today," remarked Dezotell. "In most of the matches, the Emerson players had to work pretty hard to beat us and we were very happy with the effort the players put forward.

"We are going to make some changes with our doubles teams, and focus on winning our final three regular season matches. Then, we'll see what we can do in the GNAC playoffs."

Norwich returns to action on Thursday, April 16, when the Cadets host in-state rival Lyndon State College at Shapiro Field House. The non-conference match is scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m.
 

Emerson 9, Norwich 0

Singles
1-Allesandro Bellino (EC) def. Peter Hooper, 3-6, 6-4, 12-10
2-Brant Buckley (EC) def. Collin Hyte, 6-4, 6-0
3-Dave Fein (EC) def. Matt Sanford, 6-0, 6-4
4-Mark Jackman (EC) def. Travis Tyler, 6-3, 6-3
5-Varun Kapur (EC) def. Chris Pashley, 6-1, 6-2
6-Morgan Crossley (EC) def. Graham Oliveira, 6-0, 6-0

Doubles
1-Bellino/Buckley (EC) def. Hooper/Tyler, 8-2
2-Jackman/Kapur (EC) def. Hyte/Pashley, 8-4
3-Fein/Crossley (EC) def. Sanford/Oliveira, 8-1