Syracuse, N.Y. – The second-seeded Le Moyne College men's tennis team will begin pursuit of its first Northeast Conference Championship on Thursday morning when it takes on seventh-seeded Wagner College at 10:00 a.m. at the Mercer County Tennis Center in West Windsor, N.J.

The Le Moyne/Wagner winner will meet the winner between third-seeded LIU and sixth-seeded Stonehill in the semifinals on Friday at 9:00 a.m. The top half of the bracket features fourth-seeded Binghamton and fifth-seeded Saint Francis meeting in the first round and the winner taking on top-seeded FDU in the semifinals. The championship match will take place on Saturday at 10:00 a.m.

The Dolphins and Seahawks were scheduled to meet in the regular season on March 1, but the match was not played after the match between the womens' teams ran late. During Le Moyne's first year at the Division I level, the Dolphins registered a 4-0 win over the Seahawks on February 11, 2024 with wins at first and second doubles and first, second and third singles.

The Dolphins are led by reigning NEC Player of the Year and five-time NEC Player of the Week Peter Hatton, who is 15-1 in dual matches at the top position, including 7-0 in NEC play, and has won 14 straight decisions. Junior Adrian Daniel, who missed last weekend's three matches, is 5-9 overall, including 3-5 at the second spot, and went 4-2 in NEC action. Graduate student Bernardo Teixeira is 4-2 in dual matches since returning from an absence in mid-March, including 2-2 at the third spot and 2-1 against NEC foes. Freshman Navya Verma is 5-5 in dual matches spread over the fourth (2-1), fifth (2-1) and sixth (1-3) positions, including 2-2 against NEC opponents. Freshman Lorenzo Bortolaso has a 6-4 record, including 5-2 at the sixth position, and went 3-2 in NEC matches.

On the doubles side, the Dolphins use pairings of Hatton and Daniel, Bortolaso and classmate Luke Hoyland and Teixeira and freshman Jacob Maravillas when at full strength. Hatton and Daniel are 13-0 at the top spot, including a mark of 6-0 in NEC action. Bortolaso and Hoyland are 2-4 at the second position, including 2-2 in NEC play. Teixeira and Maravillas are 5-3 at the third spot, including 2-1 in NEC action.
 
The Seahawks are 5-14 on the year, including 1-4 in NEC action. The Seahawks are coming off a 4-1 loss to Army on Sunday and have dropped four straight matches.
 
Wagner picked up its lone NEC win on March 30 against Mercyhurst, while it dropped NEC matches to Stonehill, Saint Francis, FDU and LIU.

The Seahawks are led by Eddie Schmidt, who is 5-6 over the top two positions, including 4-5 at the second spot, while going 2-3 against NEC foes. Damian Janiszewski is 6-9 over the second through fifth spots, including 3-4 at the fourth position and 2-2 in NEC affairs. Pablo Rodriguez Gonzalez went a team-best 3-2 in NEC action with a 2-0 mark at #3 and 1-0 at #2.

The Seahawks are 4-10 in doubles action in their five NEC matches, but they have dropped nine of the last 11 decisions are going 2-1 in their season opener against Stonehill.