Box Score

BRISTOL, R.I. – The Nichols College men's tennis team captured their fourth-straight Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Championship with a 5-3 win over Roger Williams Saturday afternoon at the RWU Tennis Courts.

The win also marks the fourth-consecutive season that the Bison have defeated the Hawks in the CCC Championship.

"That was a tremendous team win," said Nichols head coach Paul Brower. "We never gave up in that match even when we were down and really showed what we were made of."

The Hawks (13-5) came out hot in the doubles matches taking two of the three. Captains, senior Ryan Swanson (West Newbury, Mass.) and junior Eric Laboissonniere (Cumberland, R.I.), upset the CCC First Team-Doubles pairing of senior Brandon Roode (Griswold, Conn.) and freshman Austin DuBois (Simsbury, Conn.), 8-4.

Roger Williams jumped out to a 2-0 lead after taking No. 3 doubles. Junior Jonah Schwartz (Orange, Conn.) and freshman Grant Rosenberg (Melville, N.Y.) took down sophomore Joan Castillo (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) and senior Cam Lewis (Bolton, Conn.), 8-4.

The Bison (17-5) cut the deficit in half with a gritty-win at No. 2 doubles. Junior Josh Halpern (Secaucus, N.J.) and sophomore James Smith (Monte Sereno, Calif.) battled to defeat seniors Zach Bussiere (Colchester, Conn.) and Kyle Bull (Pleasantville, N.Y.), 8-6.

"For Josh and James to come back and take that doubles win really got us back into the swing of things," said Brower.

Nichols took that momentum into singles-play. Roode evened the team score at two with a 6-3, 6-3 win at No. 1 singles over Laboissonniere. The Hawks took the lead right back with a win at No. 2 singles. Bussiere defeated Smith in straight sets 6-1, 6-3.

Castillo evened things back up for the Bison with a solid comeback in the second set to defeat Swanson 6-2, 7-5 at No. 3 singles. Nichols took its first lead of the match 4-3 when DuBois defeated Bull 6-3, 7-5 at No. 6 singles.

Moments later Halpern watched Schwartz hit the final ball into the net to take the win at No. 4 singles 7-6 (7-4), 6-1 to claim another championship for the Bison.

The only match that did not finish was the No. 5 singles match between Rosenberg and sophomore Jake Zapatka (Wethersfield, Conn.). Zaptka dropped the first set before battling in the second set and saving seven match points to take the set in a tiebreaker. Zapatka had the lead in the third set 2-6, 7-6 (7-0), 3-1, before Halpern finished off the day.

"Brandon Roode was simply dominant in his win," said Brower. "A lot of credit to Joan and Josh on their wins against awesome opponents and congrats to Austin for continuing his streak."

The Bison win the conference's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament and will await to see when and where they will play.