WEST HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. - The Daemen College men's tennis team suffered its third defeat in as many days, falling 6-3 in non-conference action today to host Adelphi University at the Hempstead Lake Indoor Tennis facility.

The loss today sends the Wildcats to 2-14 on the season, and it was their sixth against teams who earned berths in the NCAA Division II national tournament last season.  It was also the second tough defeat in a row for coach Stephen Beatty's squad which was coming off a 5-4 loss to East Coast Conference foe Saint Thomas Aquinas College yesterday.

Adelphi, picked second in the Northeast-10 Conference preseason poll after finishing as the league's runner-up last year, improved to 5-5 overall with the win.

DC's Gregory Lowe (East Aurora, N.Y./East Aurora) and Joey Gentile (East Amherst, N.Y./Niagara University) got the Wildcats on the board with a 8-4 win in second doubles over AU's Sebastian Zapata (Toronto, Canada) and Roey Heymann (Old Bethpage, N.Y.).

The Panthers would pick up victories in first and third doubles to take a 2-1 lead early in the match.  Matteo Cannavera (Quartu Sant'Elena, Italy), the reigning NE-10 Player of the Year, teamed with Uladzislau Litvinchuk (Brest, Belarus) to win 8-4 in the top slot over DC's Mark Veitengruber (Rockford, Mich./Rockford) and John LeMar (North Tonawanda, N.Y./North Tonawanda).  And, the duo of Sander Brenner (Port Washington, N.Y.) and Daniel Khodosh (Roslyn Heights, N.Y.) were 8-4 winners against the Wildcats' David Gonzales Villegas (Pereira, Colombia/Liceo Frances de Pereira) and Andrew LeMar (North Tonawanda, N.Y./North Tonawanda).

In singles play, Daemen got wins in the fourth and fifth positions from Gonzalez Villegas and Lowe, respectively.  Gonzalez Villegas, who was playing in just his third match of the spring after recovering from an injury suffered last fall, rebounded in his match against Zapata after dropping the first set to win 2-6, 6-2, 1-0.  Lowe also went to three sets in defeating Heymann 6-3, 0-6, 1-0.  It was the second-straight singles victories for both DC players.

But, the Panthers secured the dual-match victory with wins in first, second, third and sixth singles, getting points from Cannavera, Litvinchuk, Brenner and Khodosh.  Khodosh's match in sixth singles with John LeMar was tight, but he emerged victorious 7-5, 6-4.

Daemen returns to ECC play by visiting University of the District of Columbia in our nation's capital on Friday, April 8.