Written by: Kyle Mack

Top-seeded Bentley University claimed its fourth Northeast-10 Men’s Tennis Championship with a 5-0 win over second-seeded Merrimack on Sunday afternoon on the campus of rival powerhouse Stonehill College.

Senior Lorenzo Cava  and freshman Rodrigo Ribeiro helped deliver the title with two wins each.

The Championship is the program’s first since 1996, making it 14 years since the last title.

The other two years Bentley won the Championship were over two decades ago, in 1989 and 1990.

After a perfect NE-10 regular season that saw them go 11-0, the Falcons breezed through the competition in the conference tournament the same way, winning each match 5-0.

The Falcons’ three doubles teams again gave them a 3-0 advantage heading into singles, but Merrimack kept each match close.

Petar Golijanin and Sean Pahler took Cava and sophomore Victor Suski to a tiebreaker in the top-flight match, but Bentley’s team prevailed 9-8 (7-4).

Sophomores Alec Spycher  and Zach Tuckman  edged Rishi Rajpal and Liam Hoare in the second-flight, 8-6, and freshmen Rodrigo Ribeiro  and Lucas Wever got the best of Max Eppley and Tim McHugh in the third-flight, 8-5.

Cava and Ribeiro took care of their matches quickly to give Bentley the 5-0 win.

Cava finished first, defeating Rajpal 6-1, 6-0 in the top-flight.

Ribeiro clinched it for Bentley with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Hoare in the fifth-flight.

Bentley is now 16-5 on the year and Merrimack drops to 13-5.

Cava, Ribeiro and Wever were also named to the All-Championship team.

The Falcons earn the NE-10′s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Currently ranked third in the East Region, Bentley will find out its final seeding and first round opponent during the NCAA Tournament Selection Show, which is this Wednesday at 7:00 p.m.

Note: The seeding for the NCAA Tournament was not available at the time of print.