Box Score

DUDLEY, Mass. – The Nichols College men's tennis team defeated Clark (MA) 7-2 Thursday afternoon in non-conference action at the Robinson Tennis Courts.
 
The Bison got off to a good start – leading 2-1 after doubles before moving on to take care of business in singles.
 
The duo of senior captain James Smith (Monte Sereno, Calif.) and freshman Guilherme Barbosa (Bradenton, Fla.) got things started with an 8-5 win over freshman Barun Gill (Union City, Calif.) and sophomore Teodor Nicola-Antoniu (Bucharest, Romania) at No. 2 doubles.
 
The Cougars answered right back with a win at No. 3 doubles. Sophomore Andrey Samodaev (Boca Raton, Fla.) and junior Vladislav Tolmachev (Perm, Russia) defeated sophomores Kiril Ivanov (Moscow, Russia) and Igor Markowski (Paris, France), 8-5.
 
The Bison jumped back into the lead with a gritty win from No. 1 doubles, 9-7. Sophomore Blake Norton (Stratford, Conn.) and freshman Brandon Howard (Hamden, Conn.) – the reigning Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Player and Rookie of the Week, respectively – defeated freshman Jack Han (Bakersfield, Calif.) and junior Lenny Siegel (Boca Raton, Fla.).
 
The Bison handled business in singles-play – only dropping No. 2 singles where Han defeated Howard 6-1 in the first set and was leading 2-0 in the second set before Howard retired due to illness.
 
Barbosa earned a clean win at No. 3 singles 6-0, 6-0 over Samodaev before freshman Jack Donaldson (Easton, Md.) earned a point at No. 6 singles – winning 6-1, 6-3 over Siegel.
 
At No. 4 singles, Smith defeated Tolmachev, 6-4, 6-3, and then senior Jake Zapatka (Wethersfield, Conn.) got the best of Nicola-Antoniu 7-5, 6-1 at No. 5 singles.
 
Norton and Gill were the last match to finish in the top flight with both student-athletes taking a set before playing a tiebreaker third set that saw Norton pull out the win, 7-6 (7-3), 2-6, 14-12.
 
Quotes
"It was a great team win against a very strong Clark team – the best team they have had in years. It was a great job by our top two doubles, and our third pair did well too. Singles was great as we won a lot of close sets. Kudos to Jack at six and Jake at five – while Gui played on of his best matches to date at three. Blake's win in the top flight was one of the best individual wins I have ever seen as a coach. Congratulations to him because he beat a heck of a player today." – Nichols head coach Paul Brower
 
All-Time Series & Streaks
This was the first meeting between the Bison and Cougars since 2009 with the Bison winning the last two meetings. Clark still leads in the all-time series at, 12-3.
 
Next up
Clark (5-6) – Tuesday, April 4 vs Rhode Island College, 3:30 p.m.
Nichols (7-2) – Saturday, April 1 at Western New England, 12:00 p.m.