By Alex Solari, Staff Writer
On Tuesday, April 11, the Corsairs faced Suffolk University at the UMass Dartmouth court.
Junior Justin Torres of Dighton, Mass., and doubles partner Patrick Pacheco of Fall River, Mass., suffered an 8-3 loss at No. 2. Shortly after, senior Corey Rafter and Anthony Joseph of Fairhaven, Mass., ended the match with an 8-2 decision facing Suffolk University’s Francesco Saia of Wakefield, Mass., and Jacob Duggan of Sharon, Mass., at the top flight to even the score.
Suffolk’s Kevin Greenman of Dunellen, N.J., and Rami Esrawi of Braintree, Mass., then gave the Rams a 2-1 advantage in the singles with an 8-5 win at No. 3, defeating Corsairs Zach Pavao and Summer Forest-Bulley.
The Corsairs dropped to 3-1 when Omar Azzaoui of Miami Beach, Fla., defeated Joseph at No. 2 singles. UMass Dartmouth fought back though, winning four of the last five remaining matchups. Pacheco prevailed 6-3, 6-5 over Cameron Roach at No. 3, and Pavao succeeded in a 6-2, 7-6 score over Charles Tang of Hong Kong, to put the match at 3-3.
Greenman prevailed over Forest-Bulley at No. 5, but Rafter pulled out as close of a win as possible with a super 10 tiebreaker with Saia at No. 1. He conquered with a score of 7-6 in the first set before falling 6-2 in the second, and rallied from match point in the tiebreak set to win 10-8.
Torres then sealed the deal for the Corsairs. After falling 7-5 in the first set, he conquered in the next two sets 6-1, 6-2 for the deciding UMass Dartmouth point.
The score ended with a score of 5-4 in UMass Dartmouth’s favor. The Corsairs have now won the last two matchups with Suffolk, as the teams began meeting in head-to-head competition last season.
The team had a scheduled match with Becker College on Thursday, April 13, but the game was postponed.
On Saturday, April 15, UMass Dartmouth faced Salem State on the Vikings Court for the Little East Conference. Salem State got a hot start in doubles to hold off the UMass Dartmouth rally in singles for the victory.
In doubles, Salem State’s Chen Chen of Lawrence, Mass., and Mitchell Dyer of North Attleboro, Mass., almost beat out senior Corsairs Corey Rafter and Anthony Joseph, but UMass Dartmouth prevailed with a score of 9-8 with a 7-3 tiebreak set.
UMass Dartmouth’s juniors Patrick Pacheco and Justin Torres fell 8-4 to Luke Hodgkins of Winthrop, Mass., and Noah Hodgkins also of Winthrop, Mass., in No. 2 doubles. At No. 3 doubles, Vikings Dan Holland of Woburn, Mass., and Jacob Averka of Sutton, Mass., defeated Summer Forest-Bulley and Zach Pavao with a score of 8-6.
Chen followed up his win at No. 1 doubles, with a 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 1 singles over Rafter. At No. 2 singles, Dwyer defeated Joseph 7-5, 6-2. The remainder of the matches were Corsair victories.
Pacheco won at No. 3 with a score of 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 in a close match with Luke Hodgkins. Torres defeated Noah Hodgkins 6-0, 6-0 at No. 4 singles.
Forest-Bulley picked up his fourth win at No. 5 singles, with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Holland. With his 6-3, 6-3 win over Averaka at No. 6 singles, Pavao rose to 3-0 in singles on the season.
Despite these victories, the The Corsairs ultimately fell to Salem State, 5-4.
Salem State broke their six-game losing streak to UMass Dartmouth, and the last victory for the Vikings over the Corsairs came about 7 years ago on April 21, 2010, also by a 5-4 score.
For this week, the Corsairs will face Bridgewater State for the Little East Conference on Tuesday, April 18 on the Bears’ court.
They will also be facing Curry College on Thursday, April 20 at home, and Southern Maine for the LEC on Saturday, April 22 on the Corsair court as well.
For more information on Corsair sports scheduling, visit corsairathletics.com.