The UMass Boston men’s tennis team has gotten off to a rocky start this season. The coach was newly hired, hindering recruiting and advanced practicing. Additionally, a lack of advertising and recruiting led to a temporary shortage of players, which promised losses for the team as they were forced to forfeit matches. Nevertheless, we have a full team here at UMass now and, with some exceptional players leading the newcomers, the team has grown quite rapidly over the past weeks.

The Beacons (0-5) faced Wentworth (1-5) last Monday, April 12 on the courts at UMass Boston. With a bit of a breeze coming in from the water, the weather was chilly, though not unbearable for the players.

The day began with doubles matches in which UMB came up with one win and one loss. The winners for UMB were the awesome force of #1 and #2 players Quazi Sadruzzaman and Dat Nguyen, who defeated their Wenthworth opponents 8-1.

The singles matches were a mix of domination and tough battles.

Sadruzzaman, last week’s conference “Player of the Week,” conquered his opponent without losing a game, 6-0, 6-0. At one point in the match, his opponent jested, “You don’t need luck on top of everything else!” after one of Sadruzzaman’s returns got caught in the top of the net, causing him to lose a point and grunt disappointedly.

Though Sadruzzaman, UMB’s #1 player, dominated his opponent, he did recognize that the other player, who was only a sophomore, had some good talent.

“He played well in the first game, but after that he began to fall apart. He gave me a couple of games just due to double faults.”

Nguyen, UMB’s #2 player, defeated his opponent by a score of 6-1, 7-5, winning his third straight match since last week. Nguyen, who won his first victory on April 8 against Eastern Nazarene, has shown great improvement in his game and confidence, winning also against his Rhode Island College opponent last week 6-0, 6-1.

Also coming up with a win for UMB was Emilio Vallejo, the #5 player, winning by a score of 6-2, 6-1.

Unfortunately, the wins for UMB fell short of what was needed and Wentworth was able to take the match-up 5-4, leaving UMB without a win for the season thus far.