NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich University men's tennis team dropped a 7-2 decision to Castleton University on Wednesday afternoon in its 2016 season opener at Shapiro Field House.

Junior Ian Hyte (Marblehead, Mass.) won No. 1 singles and sophomore Jeff Purdy (Grantham, N.H.) took No. 3 singles to account for Norwich's two wins on the day.

Hyte beat Seth Marcil 6-4, 7-5 to take the top singles matchup. Hyte improved to 14-5 in singles matches in his career, while Purdy improved to 10-1 in his career in singles matches with a 7-5, 7-5 victory over Soren Pelz-Walsh.

Castleton (1-0, 0-0 NAC) set the tone from the on-set, sweeping all three doubles matches in close contests. The Spartans picked up their first victory over Norwich since the 2013 season after the Cadets had won five straight matches vs. Castleton.

Castleton's Kevin Rosset won No. 2 singles with a come-from-behind victory over junior Jay Carter (Glassboro, N.J.). He also teamed with Marcil to take No. 1 doubles over Hyte and Purdy by an 8-6 score.

Freshman Quentin Barthe also went 2-0 for Castleton, teaming with Pelz-Walsh to win No. 2 doubles 9-7 and then he downed Mason Madison (Lebanon, Conn.) 6-4, 6-1 at No. 4 singles.

Ryan Mulder completed Castleton's trio of players who swept their matches, teaming with Tyler Wilcox to rally from a 4-1 deficit at No. 3 doubles and beat Tyler Eagan (Verona, N.J.) and Sam Beiter (Youngstown, N.Y.) 8-6. Mulder also won pro-set at No. 6 singles by a 10-4 score over Beiter.

Norwich (0-1, 0-0 GNAC) will look to rebound on Saturday at 1 p.m. when it hosts Western New England in Shapiro Field House in another non-conference matchup.