HAVERHILL, MA. - The Fairleigh Dickinson men's tennis team (5-11, 1-3 NEC) gathered its first conference win against the Merrimack Warriors (6-10, 3-3 NEC), 4-3 at the Cedardale Health & Fitness on Sunday afternoon.  
  
Action started with doubles play as the No. 1 team of seniors Mehdi Dhouib and Niclas Pietsch bested Merrimack's Jan Semerak and Aryaan Bhatia, 6-3. In the No. 2 spot, sophomore Arjun Sriram and graduate student Moric Budinszky knocked off the Warriors' duo of Jonathan Garcia and Henrik Lindeman, 6-3, to earn the doubles point. 
  
Andre Singer and Valentin Riveros quickly knocked off senior Niclas Pietsch and Linley at No. 4 and 6 before Sriram won at the No. 3 spot with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Garcia. Dhouib defeated Semerak at No. 1 in straight sets to bring FDU's lead to 3-2.  Budinszky then fell short to Lindeman, 6-4, 4-6, 2-6 in a hard-fought match at No. 5.  Freshman Justas Trainauskas dropped the second set but came back to win the match at 4-3 for FDU with a 7-6 (1), 6-7 (4), 6-4 victory over Bhatia at No. 2. 

Next up    
The Burgundy and Blue will travel to Old Westbury, N.Y., to face LIU on Friday, April 8, at the LIU Tennis Center.  
 

Box Score 

Doubles 
1. Dhouib/Pietsch (FDU) def. Semerak/Bhatia (MER) 6-3 
2. Sriram/Budinszky (FDU) def. Garcia/Lindeman (MER) 6-3 
3. Linley/Trainauskas (FDU) unf. Kock/Robertson (MER) 4-5  

Singles 
1. Dhouib (FDU) def. Semerak (MER) 6-1, 2-6, 7-6 (5) 
2. Trainauskas (FDU) def. Bhatia (MER) 7-6 (1), 6-7 (4), 6-4 
3. Sriram (FDU) def. Garcia (MER) 6-1, 6-3 
4. Singer (MER) def. Pietsch (FDU) 6-4, 6-3 
5. Lindeman (MER) def. Budinszky (FDU) 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 
6. Riveros (MER) def. Linley (FDU) 6-1, 6-4 

Order of finish: Doubles (1,2); Singles (4,6,3,1,5,2) 
 

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