Western New England Drops 5-4 Decision to North Central College

Golden Bears suffer first loss of 2018-19 season

ORLANDO, Fla. (March 18, 2019) – The Western New England University men's tennis team suffered its first loss of the season at the hands of North Central (Ill.) College by a 5-4 score on Monday night at the USTA National Training Center.

The Cardinals picked up the first point of the match as Tyler Bussell and Lucas Pindak defeated senior Michael Tran (West Haven, Conn.) and sophomore Max Gordon (Middleton, Mass.) 8-2 at No. 3 doubles.

North Central took a 2-0 lead via Andy Hinch and Tyler Haizel's 8-3 win over juniors Hippolyte Bonnet (Lille, France) and Luke Surawski (Wethersfield, Conn.) at No. 2 doubles, before Western New England got on the board when junior David Kalmer (Slingerlands, N.Y.) and senior Justin Kohut (South Windsor, Conn.) posted an 8-5 victory over Victor Krueger and Justin Howes at No. 1 doubles.

Singles play began with a 6-0, 6-3 result in favor of Hinch over Gordon at No. 5, giving the Cardinals a 3-1 advantage in the match.

Western New England answered with wins at the No. 1, 3 and 6 positions, however, as Kalmer took down Krueger 6-3, 6-3, Kohut topped Howes 6-3, 6-4, and junior Griffin Arnold (Meriden, Conn.) registered a 6-2, 6-2 win over Marco Davila.

Trailing 4-3, North Central posted victories at No. 4 and No. 2 to claim the comeback win. At No. 4, Haizel downed Surawski 6-1, 7-5. In the deciding match, Bussell edged Bonnet 6-4, 2-6, 10-5.

Up Next
Western New England (3-1) will look to get back into the win column tomorrow night at 8 p.m., when the Golden Bears take on Lawrence University.