FREDERICKSBURG, Va. -- In a nationally-ranked showdown for the Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference Championship, the Christopher Newport men's tennis team fell to No. 18 Mary Washington, 5-0. The Captains close out the tournament with a 10-9 overall record while Mary Washington improves to 15-5 on the season.

The Eagles secured the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Championship which begins next week.

The hosts jumped out to a 3-0 lead after doubles and then wrapped up the win with victories at No. 3 and 5 singles. Facing one of the top teams in the nation, the Captains picked up multiple games in each of the three doubles bouts, but Mary Washington pulled away. At No. 1, the top-ranked tandem in the Atlantic South, Moses Hutchison and Andrew Watson, surrendered three games to the Captains' veteran duo Ryan Macy and Alec Strause. Rishi Charan Shankar and Nick Spera won at No. 2, 8-4, against CNU's senior pair of Paul Baron and Mason Kolls. And rounding out doubles play, Cole Tecce and Peter Leese won, 8-3, versus CNU's Matthew Dubuque and Ashton Legum. 

In singles play, the Eagles pulled ahead to win the first set in all six matches before Watson, at No. 3, and Spera, at No. 5, clinched the match and the championship.

The setback was the seventh matchup against a nationally-ranked opponent for CNU in the last nine matches against Division III competition.

For their efforts in the 2022 C2C Championship, rookie Ashton Legum and sophomore Tyler Hyun were named to the Conference All-Tournament Team.