NORTHFIELD, Vt. – Ahead by a 2-1 margin after doubles play, the Norwich University men's tennis team cruised to a 6-3 win over Castleton University on Wednesday at the Jacob Shapiro Field House. Norwich improves to 2-2 on the year while Castleton (4-1) dropped only its first match of the year. 

The tandem of senior Jay Carter (Glassboro, N.J.) and senior Tyler Eagan (Verona, N.J.) dispatched their counterparts at No. 2 doubles by an 8-5 score. Sophomore Sam Beiter (Youngstown, N.Y.) and junior Hadley Ellis (Jamestown, Ky.) would follow with another win for the Cadets, breaking an 8-8 deadlock with a 7-5 tiebreak win at No. 3 singles. 

Senior Ian Hyte (Marblehead, Mass.), competing at No. 1 singles, rebounded from an early 6-2 defeat to capture the next two sets, 6-3 and 6-0. Freshman Dylan Ackerman (Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands) matched Hyte with a three-set win at No. 2 singles while Carter turned in a 6-4, 6-4 win at No. 3 singles. 

Eagan also secured a 7-5, 6-3 win for the Cadets at No. 4 singles. Beiter and freshman Timothy Birnbaum (Mahwah, N.J.) nearly pulled off the sweep of singles play for Norwich, but each fell in a dramatic third-set tiebreaker. In total, five of the nine matches on the afternoon were decided with an extra set. 

Norwich Head Coach Adam Chicoine, a 2013 graduate of Castleton, avenged his team's 5-4 loss to the Spartans on Wednesday, Mar. 1. The last Norwich victory over Castleton came on Mar. 25, 2015, a 9-0 blanking of the Spartans in the Shapiro Field House. 

The Cadets' scheduled match versus Green Mountain College slated for Saturday, Mar. 25 was postponed. The next showdown for Norwich will be Wednesday, Mar. 29, a 3 p.m. contest against Johnson State College on the road.