NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- On a sun-splashed day at the James T. and Sarah C. Eyre Courts, the nationally-ranked Christopher Newport men's tennis team waited out an early rain shower before taking the courts and shining against 30th-ranked Salisbury University (12-4) as the home team captured a 7-2 win. The Captains improved to 10-6 with the win in the pivotal regional matchup, which included multiple wins for Vincent Truong, Edvard Porsmyr Hansen, Nesh Kumaresan, and Ashton Legum. 

Morning showers forced a slight delay in the home match on Saturday, but the clouds cleared as the Captains hosted the Sea Gulls on a beautiful, warm spring afternoon outdoors. Doubles play went swiftly, with Christopher Newport capturing two of the three bouts to take an early lead. Into singles play, the Captains rolled to the first three wins to clinch the match when Alex Seretis closed out Russell Willenborg at No. 6. 

The doubles matches were runaways for the Captains at No. 1 and 2 but the Sea Gulls captured an 8-6 win at No. 3 to tighten the team score. Kumaresan and Truong paired up at No. 1 to defeat Jhayden Pappas and Gianluca Beaujon; Legum and Porsmyr Hansen earned an 8-1 to open the day at No. 2 against Caleb Brightman and Gurv Suri. 

In singles, Porsmyr Hansen captured a dominant win at No. 2 by dropping just two games in a straight-set victory against Beaujon. The veteran battle finished in a 6-2, 6-0 win for the Captains. Then, Legum wrapped up a 6-2, 6-3 win over Aron Bursztyn at No. 5 to pull the Captains within just a single point of clinching the match. Moments later, Seretis sent the team into a frenzied cheer with the fifth team point, clinching the bout for CNU with a 6-4, 6-2 win. 

WIth three matches left on the docket, two went into tiebreakers in hard-fought matches that fell one apiece for each team. Before that, though, Truong captured his second win of the day with a 6-4, 7-5 win against Pappas at No. 1. The sophomore improved to 5-2 at No. 1 this season and 11-3 in duals this season. 

Salisbury captured a 1-6, 7-6 (7-5), 1-0 (10-2) win at No. 4 to get back on the board, but the Captains rallied behind Kumaresan in the final match of the day at No. 3. Taking on Brightman, the CNU sophomore edged out his Salisbury counterpart in the first set, 7-6 (2), but dropped the second set by a narrow margin, 7-5. With the super breaker going back-and-forth, Kumaresan slammed a forehand winner off a Brightman lob to set up match point. From there, Brightman avoided the defeat with one point to make it 9-7, but Kumaresan rifled a tough serve to return across the net and two volleys later slammed home the winner down the line for a 7-6 (2), 5-7, 1-0 (10-7) victory. 

The Captains will return to action on Sunday afternoon against Marymount University. With rain forecasted in the Newport News area, the teams are planning to play indoors at the James River Country Club with a time TBD.