NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich University men's tennis team opened its season on Tuesday, falling to Western New England 7-2 in non-conference action in Shapiro Field House. 

The Golden Bears defeated Norwich for the third straight season. WNE (1-0, 0-0 CCC) swept all three doubles matches to seize momentum and never look back en route to the victory. 

David Kalmer and Justin Kohut downed Dylan Ackerman (Northern Mariana Islands, Saipan) and Alexi Gilmore (Haverhill, Mass.) 8-4 at No. 1 doubles. Junior Sam Beiter (Youngstown, N.Y.) and senior Hadley Ellis (Jamestown, Ky.) fought gamely at No. 2 doubles, leading 5-4 at one point. However, Max Gordon and Michael Tran rallied to win the last three games to take an 8-5 victory. 

Peter Stegemann and Matt Russell took No. 3 doubles over Timothy Birnbaum (Mahwah, N.J.) and Maddy Muthukumaraswany (Montreal, Quebec) 8-1. 

Gilmore and Beiter each claimed wins at No. 2 and No. 3 singles to lead the Cadets, but it wasn't enough to complete the comeback as WNE took No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 singles to finish off the victory. 

Kalmer beat Ackerman 6-3, 6-3 at No. 1 singles, while Gilmore picked up his first collegiate victory with a 4-6, 6-3, 10-1 victory at No. 2 singles over Stegemann. Beiter downed Tran 2-6, 6-2 and 6-2 at No. 3 singles to pick up the win. 

Gordon beat Muthukumaraswany 6-1, 6-1 at No. 4 singles, while Arnold beat Birnbaum 6-2, 6-2 at No. 5 singles. Russell claimed the final win at No. 6 singles with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Noah Stillman (Danbury, Conn.). 

Norwich (0-1, 0-0 GNAC North) will look to get its first win of the season on Thursday, March 8 when it travels to Castleton University for another non-conference matchup.