HANOVER, N.H. – March 23, 2017 – The Colby-Sawyer men's tennis team fell to Nichols College, 8-1, at the Boss Tennis Center on the campus of Dartmouth College.

These teams have a history of long matches, with their last meeting (2016 NCAA First Round) taking more than four and a half hours to complete. Tonight's match took three and a half hours with the third sets played to super breakers. 

The Chargers drop to 4-9, while Nichols improves to 5-2. Colby-Sawyer will open conference play on April 1 at MCLA.

Nichols took a 1-0 lead after Blake Norton and Brandon Howard edged Gustav Jigrup and Cass McCann, 8-6, at the top doubles flight. Alex Wright and Cam Lynch also played a close match at the third spot, but fell to Kirill Ivanov and Igor Markowski, 8-5. The No. 2 doubles match, which took an hour and a half to play, saw Dean Boodakian and Ryan Sawyer trail James Smith and Guilherme Barbosa 6-1, but battled to back to force a tie break. The Nichols duo came out on top 9-8 (7-5) to give the Bison a 3-0 lead after doubles.

Dean Boodakian registered the Chargers' lone point of the match with the lengthiest singles contest of the evening at the fifth flight. After dropping the first set to Jake Zapatka, 6-3, he rebounded with a 7-5 second set win to knot the match at 1-1. Boodakian then cruised to a 10-2 super breaker win to take the match 2-1.

Ross Kenney, Alex Wright and Gustav Jigrup each forced three sets, which were decided in super breakers. The Bison were able to come away with wins in each to secure the victory. 

Nichols 8, Colby-Sawyer 1
03/23/17 at Hanover, N.H. (Boss Tennis Center) 

Singles competition

1. Blake Norton (NC) def. Gustav Jigrup (CSCM1617) 6-2, 3-6, 10-5

2. Brandon Howard (NC) def. Cass McCann (CSCM1617) 7-5, 6-3

3. Guilherme Barbosa (NC) def. Alex Wright (CSCM1617) 3-6, 6-1, 10-2

4. James Smith (NC) def. Ryan Sawyer (CSCM1617) 6-2, 6-2

5. Dean Boodakian (CSCM1617) def. Jake Zapatka (NC) 3-6, 7-5, 10-2

6. Jack Donaldson (NC) def. Ross Kenney (CSCM1617) 5-7, 6-1, 10-5

Doubles competition

1. Blake Norton/Brandon Howard (NC) def. Gustav Jigrup/Cass McCann (CSCM1617) 8-6

2. James Smith/Guilherme Barbosa (NC) def. Dean Boodakian/Ryan Sawyer (CSCM1617) 9-8 (7-5)

3. Kirill Ivanov/Igor Markowski (NC) def. Cam Lynch/Alex Wright (CSCM1617) 8-5

Match Notes

Nichols 5-2

Colby-Sawyer 4-9

Order of finish: Doubles (1,3,2); Singles (6,2,4,3,1,5)

T-3:30 A-15

For the latest on Colby-Sawyer Athletics, follow the Chargers on Facebook (www.facebook.com/CSCathletics), Twitter (www.twitter.com/CSCathletics) and Instagram (www.instagram.com/CSCathletics).