Syracuse, N.Y. – The fourth-seeded Le Moyne College men's tennis team registered a 4-1 victory over fifth-seeded Franklin Pierce in the first round of the Northeast-10 Conference Championships on Tuesday afternoon at the Skytop Tennis Courts.
 
With the victory, Le Moyne improves to 13-8, earns its second win in the conference championship and advances to the NE10 semifinals for the second straight year and the second time in the program's history. The Dolphins will visit top-seeded Southern New Hampshire University on Thursday at 2:00 p.m. The Penmen handed the Dolphins a 6-1 loss in the regular-season matchup on April 13.

The Dolphins took the lead in the match by winning the point in the doubles competition. At the first position, sophomore Tom Jarry (Paris, France/CNED Toulouse/Emmanuel) and junior Philip Blythe (Edinburgh, Scotland/Merchiston) improved to 14-3 on the season with a 6-4 win over Roberto Chong and Nkrumah Patrick. Seniors Andres Hernandez (Monterrey, Mexico/Laurel Springs/Texas Rio Grande Valley) and Xavier Graells (Castellar del Vallès, Spain/IES Castellar/Harford Community College) were victorious at the third spot, 7-5, over James Bisazza and Andrew Schadt. Preston Gordon and Yuval Barak prevented the sweep with a 6-2 win at the second position over senior Tyler Underwood (Minoa, N.Y./East Syracuse-Minoa) and freshman Gerardo Wibmer (Maldonado, Uruguay/Apostille School).
 
In the singles competition, Blythe gave the Dolphins a 2-0 lead in the match by defeating Bisazza at the second position, 6-1, 6-0. Graduate student Sven Gopfrich (Erlangen, Germany/Emmy-Noether-Gymnasium Erlangen/Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg) collected a 7-5, 6-0 victory at the sixth spot over Schadt for his fourth straight win. Chong got the Ravens on the scoreboard with back-to-back 6-4 wins over Jarry at the first position. Graells rallied at the fourth spot to defeat Patrick, 2-6, 6-1, 6-3, to clinch the victory for the Dolphins.