The Albertus Magnus men's tennis team fell in its Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) opener 6-3 at Norwich University on Saturday afternoon.
Albertus, now 0-2 on the year, earned all three of its wins in singles play led by two exciting matches featuring the Falcons' Cerrone Bell (New Haven, Conn.) and Elvis Santana (Bronx, N.Y.).
In No. 4 singles, Bell defeated Kristine Brammer in the opening set by a dominating 6-2 score before Brammer answered back with a 6-2 win to tie the score. With a 6-4 final set victory, Bell earned his first singles' win as a Falcon.
Santana downed Gustavo Avila in No. 5 singles as he won 6-2, 7-6. After being dominant in the opening set, Avila battled in the second but Santana was able to edge the Cadet with a 7-6 victory to take the match.
Ahmed Abdulabteef (Hamden, Conn.) shutout Norwich's Marshall Core with a pair of 6-0 sets to round out the Albertus victories.
Norwich swept doubles play as Christian Hoskey and Patrick Ogden stayed perfect on the year as they took a thrilling 9-8 (7-4) win in No. 1 doubles over Albertus' Pete Zacharias (North Haven, Conn.) and Marcus Artaiz (Hamden, Conn.). Zacharias also fell to Hoskey in No. 1 singles 6-0, 6-3.
With the win, the Cadets are now 2-1 on the year and 1-0 in GNAC play. Last season, the Falcons fell to Norwich 9-0.
Albertus will host Webb Institute on Sunday in New Haven in a 1:00 p.m. non-conference match-up.