By Jim Fenton
BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- They began the afternoon on Monday by learning the details of a first-ever appearance in the NCAA Division 3 tournament.
Three hours later, members of the Bridgewater State University men's tennis team were on the Rosen Memorial Tennis Courts, starting preparations for a brand new experience.
"The energy was great," said Bears coach David Purpura. "They were ripping balls."
BSU is venturing into new territory this week after winning the Little East Conference tournament, earning an automatic bid in the NCAAs.
The Bears (9-4) will be making a four-hour bus trip to Vermont to take on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (18-3), ranked 25th in the national Division 3 poll, in the opening round of a six-team regional in Middlebury, Vt.
BSU and MIT will play for the first time ever on Friday at 2 p.m. on the campus of Middlebury College. The winner advances to a Saturday match at 2 p.m. against Trinity University of Texas, ranked 10th in the nation.
While the Bears are making their NCAA tourney debut, MIT has reached the tournament for the 26th year after winning another New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference tournament.
While #7 Middlebury, which made it to the national semifinal round a year ago, MIT and Trinity are nationally ranked, the Bears are going to find out what the NCAAs are all about.
"It'll be fun," said Purpura. "We know they're a powerhouse. The team is ready to go. They're ready for the experience.
"We're going to put it all out there and see what kind of punctuation mark we can put on our season."
BSU was picked to finish fifth in the seven-team Little East, then went 6-0 to claim the No. 1 seed. The Bears then hosted UMass Boston and Rhode Island College in the tournament, winning, 5-0 and 5-1, to get the trip to the NCAAs.
It is the first time that BSU has won the conference tournament in its current format.
"We checked off so many of our preseason goals this spring," said Purpura. "They started with outperforming our preseason expectations, predicted to be fifth in the conference. From there, we wanted to be competitive with the top teams in the conference. We checked that box.
"From there, we believed we could beat the top teams in the conference and we checked that box. As it started to become a reality, we wanted to lock up the No. 1 seed and go undefeated. We checked that box. Hosting the whole LEC tournament, we checked that box.
"We achieved so many goals. There were a lot of firsts for us. In a lot of ways, I think all of us kind of feel like this part of the season, we're playing with house money."
Three additions to the roster -- Robby Cooney (Plymouth, Mass.), Tom Ayson (Plymouth, Mass.) and Filippo Mucci (Vineyard Haven, Mass.) -- joined returning players Adam Beatrice (Rockland, Mass.), Ryan Hebert (Taunton, Mass.), Matthew Krampf (Littleton, Mass.) and Tyler Barros (Somerset, Mass.) to build a title team.
Cooney took over at No. 1 singles. Beatrice, who started the season at the top flight, slid into his role at No. 2 when Cooney arrived. Ayson moved into No. 3 singles, Krampf took the four spot and Mucci played at No. 5 singles with Hebert rounding out the top six. Barros was 4-0 in the conference while Ayson, Hebert and Krampf were 4-1 and Cooney was 3-1.
In doubles, Cooney and Krampf went 9-2 at No. 2 and Ayson and Beatrice went 8-5 at No. 1 doubles.
Beatrice and Mucci found the spotlight at the Little East Tournament with Beatrice earning tournament MVP honors and Mucci securing the decisive fifth point in both the semifinal and championship match victories.
"This year, we've had the perfect storm adding Robby at the top, Tommy in the middle and Filippo in the back,'' said Purpura. "With those three guys and a really strong foundation, we were able to build two or three years worth in one season.
"The hope is now we can maintain it. I'm hoping there are high school players in southeastern Massachusetts who are thinking about playing college tennis and see the usual suspects like MIT, Bowdoin, Endicott and Nichols and now they see Bridgewater State as a realistic option to continue a tennis career and not sink the family into debt. I'm hoping it's a turning point for this program."
MIT is on a nine-game winning streak and went 7-0 in the NEWMAC. The Engineers lost in the regional final to Tufts a year ago.
Ryan Xiao (Cary, N.C.) was named the most outstanding player of the NEWMAC tournament last month while Shrish Choudhary (Fremont, Calif.) has a team-leading 14 wins.
Middlebury (17-4), which made the semifinal round of the national tourney in 2023, and Trinity have byes. The other opening-round match has Allegheny facing Messiah at 10 a.m. Friday.
"The one thing we all talked about is it really feels like you can't lose when you have this opportunity," said Purpura. "We're going up there with no expectations. We know we're playing a team that is among the best in the country.
"We know what this means, but the most important part for me is they know they're going there not symbolically to represent the LEC, but to play tennis, and no matter
the score, they're going to hit with those guys.
"Our message was let's go up there with nothing to lose. We've already done a lot of things that were firsts and we've put some really put some big foundations into transforming this program and culture. No matter what the outcome is, we're going build off of that."