GOFFSTOWN, N.H. – No. 1 seed Southern New Hampshire University earned its first ever trip to the Northeast-10 men's tennis championship match with a 5-1 win over fifth-seeded Stonehill College Thursday afternoon at the Allard Center.  The Penmen improved to 12-5 and will host No. 3 seed Bentley University, a 5-4 winner over second-seeded Merrimack Thursday, in Saturday's championship match at 3:00.  Stonehill is now 13-8 on the season and awaits word of a possible NCAA Division II tournament at-large berth next week.

SNHU defeated Bentley 6-3 in the two teams' lone meeting of the season in Waltham, Mass. on April 3.  It marked the first-ever win for the Penmen over the Falcons.  Bentley is the defending Northeast-10 Tournament champion.

The Penmen jumped out to a 3-0 lead by capturing all three doubles matches.  Juan Arango-Campo (Armenia Quindio, Colombia) and Alex Mukdaprakorn (Hartford, Conn.) were 8-1 winners at No. 1. 

At No. 2, Mitchell Dobek (Westfield, Mass.) and Jared Wright (Norwell, Mass.) prevailed 9-7 over Stonehill's Aaron Bergeron and Chris Martin in a back-and-forth match.  Dobek and Wright had a 6-5 lead before Bergeron and Martin took the next two games to take a 7-6 advantage.  The SNHU tandem would recover to take the victory.  In third doubles, Tim Hamilton (Hampton, N.H.) and John Niland (Cheshire, Conn.) rallied from an early 4-1 deficit to take an 8-6 victory.

In singles, Arango-Campo was a 6-0, 6-1 winner at No. 2 while Mukdaprakorn took a 6-2, 6-1 victory at No. 3.  Bergeron took Stonehill's lone point at No. 4, defeating Wright 6-0, 6-4.

So. New Hampshire 5, Stonehill 1
04/21/11 at Goffstown, N.H. (Allard Center)