DUDLEY, Mass. – The Nichols men's tennis squad is ready to get their spring semester season off and running when they take on MIT on Saturday, February 25 in Cambridge, Mass.
Coming off the program's ninth Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Championship in the last 10 seasons (12th overall), the Bison started this season with a 1-3 record in the fall. Nichols played a tough schedule in the fall, facing Division II schools Southern New Hampshire and Bentley, while also squaring off against Division I opponent Stonehill. The lone win on the schedule came against Eastern Nazarene.
The Bison are returning a few key pieces from last year's championship-winning squad including junior Trevor Schwarzmann, a First Team All-CCC Singles selection in 2022, Second Team All-CCC Doubles member sophomore Santiago Perez, and Third Team All-CCC Doubles selection junior Caio Dieckmann. Nichols did lose First Team All-CCC Singles members in Giacomo Ghitti and Adrian Toderascu to the transfer portal, as well as Sam Kluger to graduation, but first-year head coach Ron Gendron is optimistic about the young talent on the roster.
"We have a very young talented team. We are in the process of defining what a championship culture acts and behaves like. We also have a lot of work to do with a challenging schedule. Hopefully our out-of-conference schedule of MIT, Villanova, Mount St. Mary's (Md.), Amherst, and Colby-Sawyer prepares us to defend our title," said Gendron, who comes to Dudley after spending the past 16 seasons as the head coach of Division I Bryant.
Following their match against MIT, Nichols will take on Emerson and Bryant in Cumberland, R.I. before hitting the road to take on Villanova in Pennsylvania and Mount St. Mary's in Maryland. When the Bison return home to New England, they head up to Boston to begin CCC play against Wentworth. Seven of their next 10 matches will be against CCC opponents, finishing up the regular season with Western New England on April 19. The CCC Tournament is set to begin on Saturday, April 22.
