Wheaton sweeps Salve Regina, awaits MIT in regular season finale

April 19, 2007

NORTON, MA- The regionally-ranked Wheaton College men's tennis team rebounded from Tuesday's narrow loss to the fifth-ranked team in the Northeast by blanking Salve Regina University, 9-0 on Thursday in Beard Field House. The Lyons, who are 12th in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's (ITA) regional poll, won for the seventh time in eight matches and improved to 10-3 after falling by a 5-3 count against Tufts University earlier this week. The Seahawks had their three-match winning streak snapped in dropping to 10-7.

Five Lyons won convincingly in singles action, including senior Payum Payman (Pleasant Valley, NY/Arlington) over regionally-ranked junior Robbie Norton (Exeter, NH/Exeter) in the first position. Payman downed the 17th-ranked singles player in the Northeast by a 6-0, 6-3 score. Senior Brian Danishevsky (Hamden, CT/Hamden Hall Country Day School) won 6-0, 6-3 at two, while classmate Brad Dressler (Cranston, RI/Cranston West) improved to 13-0 this spring with a 6-3, 6-2 triumph in the third spot. Senior Will Stoddard (Huntington, VT/Mount Mansfield Union) notched a 6-4, 6-3 victory at the fourth slot, and freshman Kyle Hudgins (Uxbridge, MA/Uxbridge) came out on top with a 6-2, 6-3 decision in the sixth position.

During the number-five singles match, Wheaton senior Raymour Radhakrishnan (Amherst, NH/Bridgton Academy) gutted out a three-set win against freshman Steve Masso (North Scituate, RI/Bishop Hendricken), winning the first set, 6-2, before losing by a 6-4 count. In the super tiebreaker, Radhakrishnan completed the triumph by posting a 10-8 decision.

In doubles action, Dressler and Payman corralled an 8-4 victory in the top spot, while Stoddard and freshman James Little (Mount Desert, ME/Mount Desert Island) were triumphant, 8-3 at three. In the second position, Danishevsky and Radhakrishnan pulled out a 9-8 win against Masso and junior Michael Collins (Winchester, MA/Winchester).

Wheaton completes its regular season slate on Saturday with a pivotal match against visiting Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) at 1:00 p.m. in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) showdown. Each team brings a perfect 4-0 league mark into the finale, as the Lyons look to break the Engineers' NEWMAC stranglehold. MIT has won the regular season and tournament titles every spring during the league's eight-year history, having never dropped a match against a NEWMAC foe.

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