2016 Northeast Conference (NEC) Men's Tennis Headquarters

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West Windsor, NJ - For the second straight season, the Wagner men's tennis team has reached the Northeast Conference (NEC) semifinals after the fifth-seeded Seahawks upset fourth-seeded Sacred Heart, 4-3, in the quarterfinal round on Friday morning, setting up a matchup vs. top-seeded Bryant on Saturday, April 23 at 9:00 a.m.

In recording today's come-from-behind win, the Seahawks improve to 9-13 on the season while the Pioneers conclude their season with a mark of 9-14.

"I am very proud of my guys," said Seahawk first-year head coach Jason Sinkoff. "They played the pressure points well and played with the maturity and composure of upperclassmen, even though they are freshmen and sophomores. We are not satisfied and look forward to tomorrow's match against Bryant.

"We have lost a lot of really close matches this year," he added. "I have stressed that once we learn from these defeats, the wins will come. We were down 3-1 in the overall match and most of the singles matches, and we persevered and came out with the victory."

The Pioneers claimed the first point of the match after taking No. 3 and No. 2 doubles matches by identical 6-4 scores.

In singles play, the Pioneers went ahead 2-0 after Cory Seltman claimed No. 6 singles over sophomore Jeremy Nuss (Portland, OR/Lincoln).

Wagner notched its first victory in No. 5 play as sophomore Allen Wang (Clovis, CA/Buchanan) defeated Mathieu Pilote-Schraenen, 6-3; 6-2 as Wang picked up his 11th singles victory of the season.  SHU went ahead 3-1 when Matt Dean defeated freshman Ilya Kneppelhout (Woubrugge, Netherlands/Scala College Secondary School) 6-4; 6-4.

The Seahawks fought back in the match, tying the quarterfinal matchup at 3-3 behind sophomore Charlton Boyd (Shreveport, LA/Loyola College Prep) who improved to 16-6 on the season after a comeback win at No. 4 singles, 3-6; 6-4; 6-2 over Karan Narula.

Freshman Dale Sandy (Durban, South Africa/Kersney College Secondary School) also staged a comeback in his No. 1 singles match against Brian Power.  After dropping the first set, 4-6; Sandy evened the match with a 6-4 triumph setting up the third and final set.  In a back-and-forth affair, Sandy was able to outlast Power, 7-5, tying the match at 3-3 with the No. 3 singles match determining a winner.

In this deciding game, freshman Eric Poland (Fort Meyers, FL/Bishop Verot) was pitted against Derek Chapman.  Poland was able to edge Chapman in the first set, 7-5 before Chapman evened the match with a 3-6 victory in the second set, setting up a pivotal third set.  In the final set, Poland come through by  outlasting Chapman, 6-4, as the Seahawks the 4-3 victory and advanced to tomorrow's semifinal match.

"Earlier this year, Eric played a match against Fordham and it was the same scenario," noted Sinkoff. "He was edged out that day but today he seemed to ignore that fact and come up big for us as it sealed the victory for us. He played a smart match and I couldn't be prouder of him and his efforts."

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