EMMITSBURG, Md. – The Fairleigh Dickinson men's tennis team won its third match in five days and improved to 3-0 in Northeast Conference matches this season with a 5-2 victory at Mount St. Mary's.
 
The Knights (7-9, 3-0 NEC) won two of three doubles matches to take the first match point and then four of the six singles matches as well to clinch the win over the Mountaineers (2-12, 1-2 NEC). Sophomore Moric Budinszky clinched the overall match win for the Knights with a 6-3, 6-3 win at no. 5 singles.
 
Three Knights won in singles and doubles on the day. Junior Ivan Solans Diaz and sophomore Eduardo Cabral, two of the three players to win in both, teamed up at third doubles to defeat Jean Armstrong and Evan Hine 7-6, with the tiebreaker going back and forth until the Knight duo eventually finishing off the marathon with a 13-11 advantage. The win also clinched the doubles point for FDU, with the tandem of Budinszky and freshman Mehdi Dhouib also winning 6-2 at second doubles beforehand.
 
Solans Diaz then picked up the first singles win of the day with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Alonso Garcia, improving his singles record to 8-6 this spring (13-8 overall) and giving him a three-match win streak in singles play.
 
Mount St. Mary's then captured the next two singles points with wins over Dhouib and FDU sophomore Maciej Autuch and at the first and third singles spots, respectively. Neither Knight went down without a fight, as Dhouib played his opponent Jackson Wood to a close 5-7, 4-6 loss, while Autuch battled in the second set but could not quite do enough to extend the match in a 2-6, 4-6 defeat.
 
Sophomore Andris Gudins then picked up an important win at no. 2 singles over Parth Sharma, prvevailing in a close 7-6 (3) first set before suffering a 3-6 setback and then closing out with a strong 6-3 win in the decisive third set. Gudin's victory allowed Budinszky to clinch the overall win for the Knights, and Cabral then ended the day with a 6-4, 6-3 win at the sixth singles spot for his 13th singles win of the season as well.
 
Cabral, Gudins and Solans Diaz all improved to 3-0 in conference singles matches this season. As a team, the Knights are 13-5 in NEC singles matches and 6-3 in NEC doubles matches. The 3-0 start in NEC play is the best for the program since the 2011-12 season, when the Knights went unbeaten through the NEC on their way to the conference title.
 
The Knights seek to go 4-0 in the NEC in their next match on Thursday at Sacred Heart beginning at noon, the first of three matches in four days for the team.
 
BOX SCORE
DOUBLES
Jackson Wood/Parth Sharma (MSM) def. Andris Gudins/Maciej Autuch (FDU), 6-0
Mehdi Dhouib/Moric Budinszky (FDU) def. Gabriel Santos/Alonso Garcia (MSM), 6-2
Ivan Solans Diaz/Eduardo Cabral (FDU) def. Jean Armstrong/Evan Hine (MSM), 7-6 (13-11)
 
SINGLES
Wood (MSM) def. Dhouib (FDU), 7-5, 6-4
Gudins (FDU) def. Sharma (MSM), 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-3
Santos (MSM) def. Autuch (FDU), 6-2, 6-4
Solans Diaz (FDU) def. Garcia (MSM), 6-4, 6-1
Budinszky (FDU) def. Armstrong (MSM), 6-3, 6-3
Cabral (FDU) def. Hine (MSM), 6-4, 6-3