BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University men's tennis team fell to visiting Western Connecticut State University, 6-3, in a Little East Conference match on Monday afternoon at the Rosen Memorial Tennis Courts.
The Colonials improve to 7-2 on the season and 4-1 in the Little East, while the host Bears drop to 2-9 overall and 0-3 in conference play. Bridgewater has lost eight straight matches including the last three in a row by identical scores of 6-3.
For the third straight match, the Bears led 2-1 after double play. All three flights went to a tie-breaker with BSU's top doubles team of Hung Huynh (Worcester, Mass.) and Eric Johnson (Kingston, Mass.) recording a 9-8 (7-3) decision. Cody Farrell (Scituate, Mass.) and Michael Mello (Dartmouth, Mass.) added a 9-8 (9-7) victory at the third flight.
The tandem of William Donahue (Weatogue, Conn.) and Ricardo Fuentes (Newtown, Conn.) notched the Colonials' lone doubles point with a 9-8 (7-2) win at the second spot.
West Conn picked up straight set wins in singles play by Brian Bucknam (Woodbury, Conn.) at number one (6-1, 6-0), Donahue at the fourth flight (6-3, 6-2) and Jason Hipona (Orangem Conn.) at number six (6-2, 6-1), as the Colonials jumped ahead, 4-2.
After Farrell cut the deficit to 4-3 with a 6-0, 6-1 straight set triumph at second singles, Fuentes secured the match victory for Western Connecticut with a 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 win at number five.
West Conn's Chris Turner (Brookfield, Conn.) rounded out the scoring with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 decision at third singles.
The Bears hosts Little East foe University of Southern Maine on Wednesday afternoon at 3:30, while the Colonials travel to Southern Maine on Saturday to take on the Huskies at noon.