DUDLEY, Mass. - The Nichols College men's tennis team captured its eight-consecutive Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Championship with a 5-0 win over No. 2 seeded Western New England Saturday afternoon at the Robinson Tennis Courts.

The Bison (15-6) received their strongest test of the season in doubles play. Junior Peter Coletti and senior Igor Markowski cruised to an 8-1 win at the No. 3 spot against Michael Tran and Max Gordon. With his win at the No. 3 doubles, Markowski became the winningest doubles player in program history. Seniors Blake Norton and Sebastian Penaloza came from behind to win 8-7, with a 7-0 tie break at the No. 2 doubles. Immiediately following that juniors Guilherme Barbosa and Brandon Howard won 8-7 with a 7-4 tie break at the No. 1 doubles to give the Bison a commanding 3-0 lead heading into singles play.

"I'm really proud of our guys, top to bottom. WNE came at us with everything they had and played a great match. Fortunately we were able to come up big in big spots, and sweep doubles." said Nichols head coach Paul Brower "Igor has been a huge part of our team. He's had a great career, he's undefeated in CCC Championship matches, and to take sole possession of the all time record for doubles wins is a tribute to his talent and consistency."

Nichols came out strong in singles play. Howard and Penaloza finished almost simultaneously at the No. 3 and 4 spots to clinch the 5-0 win over the Golden Bears. The win marks the Bison's eighth straight CCC Championship and they now await there placement in the 2019 Division III NCAA Tournament. Nichols also finished the season a perfect 73-0 combined in singles and doubles play against conference opponents for the first time in program history.

"We took a step in the right direction as we started singles starting fast in 5 of 6." said Brower "Kudos to Bhow and Sebastian for clinching almost simultaneously. The way this team performed was spectacular this season, to sweep the CCC 73-0 from start to finish is something we started talking about a few matches in. The guys all bought in and we were able to make it happen."