BEVERLY, Mass. (April 4, 2018) – The Franklin Pierce University men's tennis program suffered an 8-1 setback to Northeast-10 Conference opponent Merrimack College Tuesday at the Bass River Tennis Club. The victory sends the Warriors to 10-7 overall and 5-0 NE10 while the Crimson and Grey even up their overall mark at 8-8 and drop to 3-2 in league play.

With three conference games remaining on the schedule, the Ravens currently stand in fifth place in the NE10 standings. The top-six conference programs advance to the NE10 Championship with the top-two seeds earning byes and the other seeds compete in first-round action on Tuesday, April 17th.

The showdown began with doubles play, which saw the host Warriors take a 3-0 match advantage. At no. 1 doubles, Roberto Chong (Puigpunyent, Spain) and Andrew Schadt (Tolland, Conn.) suffered an 8-5 defeat at the hands of Mikhail Belov and Frank Vega. The no. 2 doubles duo of Yuval Barak (Zicron Ya'akov, Israel) and Marcus Lawrence (Acton, Mass.) almost beat Merrimack's number two paring, Denis Davydov, and Alex Fedorov, but the hosts hung on for a 9-7 win.

Merrimack earned wins at no. 1, no. 3, no. 4, no. 5 and no. 6 singles. However, Raven junior James Bisazza (West Barnstable, Mass.) picked up FPU's only singles victory as he beat Davydov 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.

Franklin Pierce wraps up their home conference slate on Saturday when they host Bentley on the courts at noon.

For more information on Franklin Pierce Athletics, please visit the official website of Franklin Pierce Athletics (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu). Also be sure to follow the Ravens through the Department of Athletics' official Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens), its YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/franklinpiercesports) and its Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/FPUathletics). Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce tennis apparel can do so at the Department of Athletics' online store (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store).