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RALEIGH, NC—Making their 19th NCAA tournament appearance, the Bloomsburg University men's tennis team downed Shepherd, 5-1 in the Atlantic Regional semifinal.  With the win, Bloomsburg advances to one of the two regional championship matches.

"Shepherd was a very scrappy team" said head coach Marty Coyne.  "Our 5-1 win in 2:30 hours was very near a 5-4 type match that would have taken over four hours so we are very happy to get out of the first round with a solid W"

The Huskies opened tournament play by taking two of three doubles matches, earning wins at the second and third spots.  Jeff Nuhfer (Warren/Warren Area) and Lee Wexler (Lafayette Hill/Plymouth-Whitemarsh) were 8-4 winners at second doubles while the duo of Mike DiSanto (Center Valley/Southern Lehigh) and Tyler Pultro (New Britain/Central Bucks West) earned their team leading 16th victory of the season with an 8-3 win at the third position.

With a 2-1 advantage in the match score, Bloomsburg needed to split the singles matches to earn a trip to the regional championship match.  DiSanto put the Huskies ahead 3-1 with a 6-2, 6-0 at sixth singles.   

Shortly after, Pultro moved the Huskies closer to a victory with a 6-1, 6-3 win at the five spot.  He now owns 18 singles victories this season, the most by any BU netter this season and the most since Ricky Dove (Port Matilda/State College Area) tallied 18 two years ago.

Just one win away, Wexler propelled the Huskies into the regional championship match with a convincing 6-1, 6-4 victory at third singles.  Wexler's win sealed a 5-1 victory for the Huskies. 

With the win Bloomsburg will play the no. 2 seed Shaw in the regional championship match, tomorrow at 10:00 a.m at Biltmore Hills Park in Raleigh, NC. "We will have to play a better match tomorrow against Shaw if we want to continue on to Louisville" said Coyne.  "Today was a strong effort from the bottom of our line-up, tomorrow we will need more productivity out of the top." The winner of tomorrow's regional championship match will punch their ticket to the NCAA Round of 16 in Louisville, KY.