By Jim Fenton
BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The Little East Conference men's tennis preseason coaches poll listed Bridgewater State University in the bottom tier.
The Bears were picked to finish fifth in the seven-team conference, ahead of only Southern Maine and Vermont State Castleton.
Twelve weeks after that poll was released, BSU is set to open the Little East tournament as the No. 1 seed after going undefeated in conference matches.
The Bears (7-4, 6-0 Little East) will host a semifinal-round match at the Rosen Memorial Tennis Courts Thursday at 3 p.m. against fifth-seeded UMass Boston (5-5, 2-4 Little East).
It marks only the second regular-season Little East title for BSU, which also went 6-0 to win the 2006 championship.
After going 5-9 and 3-3 in the Little East a year ago, the Bears added No. 1 singles player Robby Cooney (Plymouth, Mass.) and No. 3 singles player Tom Ayson (Plymouth, Mass.) to the mix along with Filippo Mucci (Vineyard Haven, Mass.), also a BSU men's soccer player.
They joined with returning players Adam Beatrice (Rockland, Mass.), the 2023 Little East rookie of the year, Tyler Barros (Somerset, Mass.), Matthew Krampf (Littleton, Mass.) and Ryan Hebert (Taunton, Mass.) to help form a title team.
"I thought all along we were better than (fifth place)," said coach David Purpura of the preseason poll. "I believed that once we got our roster finalized, we would be in the mix and competing with the top teams.
"I don't think anybody would have predicted we would have gone 6-0 and gotten the No. 1 seed. That surpassed a lot of expectations, but to say I knew we were good would be fair. I knew we were much better than everyone else did."
Cooney and Ayson were teammates at Plymouth North High, and, after Ayson joined the team, Cooney became his teammate again after transferring to BSU this semester and stepped into the No. 1 slot to strengthen the Bears.
Cooney went 3-1 in the Little East and 5-3 overall, earning the conference rookie of the week honor three times as well as player of the week on April 22.
"I knew we were good, and then we added Robby," said Purpura. "Any time you can add a player just before the start of the season that essentially moves a part of your lineup down a position from where you were anticipating them playing, you know that's a positive thing.
"For him to be our No. 1 and have the kind of season he had, to me, he's the best player in the conference and he showed that all year. To add that kind of a player when we did was a game changer. We knew we were good and adding that extra depth really paid off."
Cooney and Krampf were 7-2, including 3-1 in the Little East, as No. 2 doubles.
The 6-foot-9 Ayson went 4-1 in the Little East at No. 3 singles, 7-4 overall, and was 4-1 in No. 1 doubles with Beatrice.
"Tommy's been awesome all season," said Purpura. "He'd probably be a frontrunner for rookie of the year if not for Robby doing what he did at the No. 1 position. To have two guys playing their first college tennis at 1 and 3 was incredible."
Beatrice played No. 3 singles in 2023 when he was the rookie of the year. He moved up to No. 2 this season and was 3-2 in the conference in addition to pairing with Ayson in doubles.
"He was outstanding," said Purpura. "He made huge leaps."
Barros was 4-0 in the Little East and is 6-2 overall playing mostly at No. 6 while Hebert and Krampf both went 4-1 in the conference. Mucci is 3-1 and won his only conference decision.
"We had seven or eight guys who contributed in major ways throughout the year," said Purpura. "Adding Robby to the mix gave us the kind of depth to have the season we did.
"Now we have goals that are bigger than the regular-season title. Everybody feels great about the way the regular season went and at the same time, everybody from coaches to players knows that the amount of talent on this team isn't going to be happy with anything short of winning the tournament."
BSU has just one senior on the roster in Nicolas Levine (Raynham, Mass.), so the future looks bright for the Bears with plenty of depth and experience returning.
"I feel really good about our future and our present," said Purpura. "These guys really stepped up this year. This is year eight for me, and this is easily my deepest men's team. We've had talented players, but just one-through-11, this is by far the deepest we've ever been.
"It's been a struggle to develop depth and consistency. I finally feel we've turned a corner with this group. We've had some recruits come by and they're excited to see a team that looked like a team that was going to be middle of the pack or worse come out and have a chance to win this thing.
"That's going to improve our recruiting. It can catapult this program to be where I've been hoping it would be since they hired me."
If BSU wins in the semifinal round, it would host the Little East championship match on Saturday with a chance to earn an automatic berth in the NCAA Division 3 tournament, which opens May 9.