Bethlehem, Pa. (February 16, 2014) – The Mount St. Mary's men's tennis team could not navigate past a tough Lehigh squad on Sunday afternoon, dropping a 7-0 decision at the Lewis Tennis Center.

Lehigh (5-1), which won the Patriot League last spring, took the doubles point and the six singles matches from the Mount (3-2).

The Mount dropped doubles matches at the No. 1 and No. 2 positions to give the Mountain Hawks the doubles point. At No. 3, freshmen Darren Mast and Mateo DeSomocurcio were leading Ricardo Prince and Graham Lehman, 5-3, in a match that went unfinished.

In singles action, Mast and DeSomocurcio played the most competitive matches for the Mount. Playing No. 5, Mast took the first set from Jason Sutker, 6-0, before falling 6-3 in the second set. In the decisive third-set tiebreaker, Mast had match point before Sutker came away with a 13-11 win to take the match.

DeSomocurcio lost the first set of his No. 3 singles match versus Timur Chernykh, but pulled even with a 6-3 win in the following set. DeSomocurcio was one point away from victory when Chernykh fought back to take the tiebreaker, 10-8.

Next on the schedule, the Mount heads to Florida for five matches Feb. 23-28.

Doubles
No. 1: Gilman/Kochman (Lehigh) def. Salomon/Tonon (Mount), 6-2
No. 2: Petersen/Chernykh (Lehigh) def. Blake/Mike Zabetakis (Mount), 6-2
No. 3: Mast/DeSomocurcio (Mount) leading Prince/Lehman (Lehigh), 5-3 unfinished

Singles
No. 1: Gilman (Lehigh) def. Blake (Mount), 6-5 (7-5), 6-4
No. 2: Petersen (Lehigh) def. Salomon (Mount), 6-1, 6-1
No. 3: Chernykh (Lehigh) def. DeSomocurcio (Mount), 6-5 (7-5), 3-6, 10-8
No. 4: Kochman (Lehigh) def. Mike Zabetakis (Mount), 6-0, 6-2
No. 5: Sutker (Lehigh) def. Mast (Mount), 0-6, 6-3, 13-11
No. 6: Bogard (Lehigh) def. Tonon (Mount), 6-0, 6-2