Eastern Shore – The St. Mary's College of Maryland men's tennis team started off Saturday with a 7-2 loss to No. 21 Salisbury University before rebounding with a 5-4 triumph over Division I University of Maryland Eastern Shore later in the day.

Box Score at Salisbury

In the loss to nationally-ranked Salisbury (7-4, 2-0 CAC), first-year Joshua Olexa (Prince Frederick, Md./Huntingtown) picked up the Seahawks' lone singles victory with a 6-3, 6-4 win over junior Matt Copeland (Lexington Park, Md./Great Mills) at No. 6 singles.

The duo of sophomore Robbie Bourdon (Huntingtown, Md./Huntingtown) and first-year Kyle Feeley (Baltimore, Md./Mount Saint Joseph) notched an 8-6 win at No. 3 doubles over the tandem of first-year Evan Clifton (Bel Air, Md./C. Milton Wright) and sophomore Arthur Jackson (Ridgely, Md./North Caroline) for St. Mary's only doubles win.

Box Score at UMES

At Maryland-Eastern Shore, the Seahawks (8-4, 1-1 CAC) erased a 4-1 deficit by claiming four straight singles matches for the 5-4 victory, including senior Kenny Nugent's (Pocomoke, Md./Pocomoke) hard-fought match at No. 5 singles.

UMES entered singles action with a 2-1 advantage and then captured both No. 1 and No. 3 singles to post three-point advantage before Olexa's 6-4, 7-5 win over junior Richard Warren (Salem, N.J./Salem) at No. 6 singles to knot the match at 4-all and set up Nugent's heroics.

Nugent dropped his first set to sophomore Osvaldo Rivera (Christiansted, U.S.V.I./St. Croix Educational Complex), 3-6, before answering with a 7-6 (9-7) win in the second.  Nugent then posted a 10-1 triumph in the super tiebreaker set to clinch the match win for the Seahawks.

St. Mary's will be back in action this coming Tuesday, March 30 as the Seahawks travel to Chestertown, Md. to face Washington (Md.) College in non-conference action at 3:00 pm.