Men’s Tennis Kicks Off Season with First-Place Finish at ENC Fall Invitational

QUINCY, Mass.- The Eastern Nazarene men's tennis team opened the 2014-15 season over the weekend, hosting its annual Fall Invitational Tournament.

The Lions secured the team title with a total of 80 points. UMass-Boston came in second place with 40 points while Western New England earned 10 points to grab third place and Curry finished in fourth with zero points.

Andres Biondi (Barquisimeto, Venezuela), Kevin Paterno (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and Vladislav Tolmachev (Perm, Russia) all represented Eastern Nazarene in the singles draw.

In the quarterfinal round, Paterno defeated Toma Blatchford from Curry 6-0, 6-3. Biondi advanced after an injury forced Western New England's Alex Sause to retire. Tolmachev edged UMass-Boston's Edward Martinez 6-3, 3-6, 10-7.

In the semifinals, Paterno fell to UMass-Boston's Charles Lai 7-6, 6-4 and Tolmachev topped Biondi 6-1, 6-3.

Tolmachev dropped a 6-1, 6-4 decision in the championship match to Lai.

Eastern Nazarene fielded three doubles tandems in the doubles draw.

In the first round, Sam McKay-Corkum (Rehoboth, Mass.) and Sam Son (Wilbraham, Mass.) teamed up to claim an 8-1 victory over Wyatt Towle and Jack Wang from UMass-Boston. Tyler Perron (Plympton, Mass.) and Miguel Vera Orjuela (Bogota, Colombia) edged Peter LeFrancois and PJ Nassar of Western New England 9-7. Yahalel Carter (Chicago, Ill.) and Davis Steelman (Darlington, Md.) posted an 8-1 win over Greg Parenteau (Wolcott, Conn.) of ENC and UMass-Boston's Nikhil Illa.

McKay-Corkum and Son prevailed over Western New England's Adam Zimmerman and Chris Spear 8-5 in the semifinals. Steelman and Carter downed Perron and Vera Orjuela 8-5 in the other semifinal match to setup an all-ENC title bout.

McKay-Corkum and Son eked out a 9-8 victory over Steelman and Carter to capture the doubles crown.

The Lions' first match of the fall season is slated for September 22 at Regis.