Some might say that in sports, the spoils go to the victor. They must have missed this game.

The UMass Boston men’s tennis team (0-4) showed its best performance of the season in a close loss to Eastern Nazarene College by a score of 4-5 on Thursday, April 8 after being defeated by UMass Dartmouth by a final score of 2-7 five days earlier.

Beacon coach Carl Briggs commented, “Players are learning everyday. This is a big improvement.”

Coach Briggs showed excitement by raising his fist, a rarity for him, when #6 singles junior Ryu Ngo won a back-to-back tiebreaker against Phil LaFountain (7-6, 7-6) to record the first win in his career.

Ngo recollected of the match, “It was good that I was not so nervous from the beginning. I just tried to play a patient and consistent game.”

This game was the first time UMass Boston competed in #6 singles and #3 doubles. Up to this point, the Beacons had to give up the two matches by forfeit.

In addition to Ngo, senior Quazi Sadruzzaman, a two-time winner of Little East Conference “Player of the Weak” last year, defeated Craig Moore (6-0, 6-2) in #1 singles to improve his season record to 4-0. Sophomore Dat Nguyen, the #2 singles player, gained his first win of the season over Jimmy Gardner (6-2, 6-4). Additionally, Sadruzzaman and Nguyen won as a #1 doubles pair over Moore and Gardner of Eastern Nazarene College (8-4).

The Beacons and the Crusaders split their singlesmatches by a score of 3-3. Sophomore Yassir Bouaboallaoulos, the #3 singles player of UMB, lost to Jared Willemin (6-4, 6-4), #4 sophomore Jay Lee of UMB lost to Kevin Simonson (6-3, 6-1), and #5 UMB sophomore Trung Phan lost to Dan Zimmerman (6-0, 6-0).

Both teams suffered from fierce winds from the harbor during the singles games. According to weather.com, the wind speed at game time was 20mph.

“I advised them to play a little bit more conservatively and not to hit many balls near the edge,” coach Briggs said.

The Beacons showed weakness in #2 and #3 doubles. Each were easily defeated by a score of 1-8 as #2 doubles Lee and senior Emilio Vallejo of lost to Willemin and Simonson, and #3 Ngo and Phan lost to Zimmerman and LaFountain.

The Beacons are scheduled to play their next games at Western Connecticut State on Saturday, April 17 and at Salem State Saturday, April 24 before hosting Newbury College at the Clark Athletic Center at 4:00 p.m. on Monday, April 26.