BELMONT, Mass. – Suffolk men's tennis grabbed its first Commonwealth Coast Conference victory of the year in thrilling fashion as the Rams came back to take down Western New England, 5-4, Wednesday night at Belmont Hill. 

THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 5 | Western New England 4
RECORDS: Suffolk (2-3, 1-3 CCC) | Western New England (2-7, 1-3 CCC) 

HOW IT HAPPENED
Suffolk fell behind 1-2 after doubles play. The Golden Bears took courts three and one, in that order, before Mehdi Mered and Diego Hernandez-Pons rallied for an 8-7 (17-15) win in the second slot over Michael Robichaud and Thomas Roche. 

WNE extended the edge even further as Kevin Sharpe downed Milinind Kulkarni, 6-3, 6-0, in the sixth singles spot. A 6-1, 7-5 victory by Mikhail Reilly over Paul Riccio on court five pulled the blue-and-gold back within one, 3-2. 

Roche swept Hasan Esrawi in the third position to set-up match point for the Golden Bears. Suffolk's No. 2 Daniel Dayn kept the blue-and-gold alive with a  6-1, 6-4 victory over Robichaud before Mered's the Rams' ace, cameback for a 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 win against Brandon Greger to level the playing field at 4-all. 

With the match on the line, Herandnez Pons put together a 5-7, 6-1, 6-3 triumph against Tyler Macdowall at No. 4 to push Suffolk to victory.

NOTEWORTHY

• Suffolk defeated Western New England for the first time in program history.
• The Rams moved to 1-1 all-time against the Golden Bears. 

WHAT'S NEXT?
Suffolk heads to Endicott Saturday, April 8 for a 12 p.m. CCC clash.