The Bears of NYIT defeated the RWC Redhawks 5-2 in an ECC Men's Tennis opener for both teams.  The match, played on the NYIT campus in Old Westbury, NY, was closer than the score indicated.  The Bears Francisco Caldas and Diego Espiniella defeated RWC's Boyd Blackburn and Guido Janssen 6-3 at first doubles to open the match.  The RedHawks Dennis Barlotta and Andrew Freeman countered with a 6-4 win at third doubles over Kevin Huynh and Jean Kehyayan.  The doubles point went to NYIT when Nicolas Castaldo and Yaga Granda edged Harmeet Luthra and Matthew Forrest at 2^nd doubles by a 7-5 score.
 
Training 1-0 after doubles, the Redhawks evened the match when Matthew Forrest defeated Maxton Cook at 3^rd singles. The Bears took the lead for good when Kevin Huynh topped Harmeet Luthra 6-1,6-0 at 4^th singles.  They extended there lead with straight set wins at 6th singles, Raul Guillen 6-3,6-0 over Freeman and at 1^st singles where Nicolas Castaldo beat Janssen 6-3, 6-1.  Roberts edged closer with a 6-2, 6-4 win by Blackburn at 2^nd singles.  Barlotta closed out the day in a close 6-4,6-4 loss to Granda at 5^th singles.
 
The Redhawks (6-7, 0-1ECC0 travel to Philadelphia where they will take on Jefferson University tomorrow in a 12pm match on the Jefferson campus.