St. Mary's City, Md. – Sophomores Robert Bishop (Hollywood, Md./Great Mills) and Wyatt Paulishak (Frederick, Md./Middletown) won their second straight doubles match Saturday afternoon as the St. Mary's College of Maryland men's tennis team dropped an 8-1 Capital Athletic Conference decision to CAC newcomer, Christopher Newport University.

All three doubles matches were tough battles. Bishop and Paulishak gave St. Mary's (4-6, 2-1 CAC) an early 1-0 lead with an 8-4 victory at No. 3 doubles. Senior captain Andrew Gear (Westminster, Md./Winters Mill) and sophomore Mark Hardesty (Westminster, Md./Westminster) played the closest doubles match for the Seahawks, falling 8-6 at No. 1 doubles.

The Captains (13-7, 5-1 CAC), who are ranked ninth in the Atlantic South region by the ITA, staked an 8-4 win at No. 2 doubles. Gear and senior John Feighner (Laurel, Md./Atholton) competed in two of the most competitive singles matches on Senior Day.

Gear took sophomore Chiraag Shetty (Yorktown, Va./Tabb) down to the wire as No. 1 singles needed three sets to be decided. Gear claimed a 6-4 win in the first set but Shetty responded in kind with a 6-4 win of his own in the second. Gear begin to cramp up but toughed it out. Shetty, however, was able to outlast Gear with a 6-2 triumph in the third set.

Feighner claimed four games at No. 3 singles, suffering a 6-1, 6-3 setback to senior Joey Manilla (Greenwood, Va./Western Albemarle).

St. Mary's will back on the courts tomorrow afternoon as the Seahawks travel to the Eastern Shore to face Salisbury University, who is ranked 19th in the region,  in a conference match at 12:30 p.m.

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