The Tiverton tennis team fell to Narragansett 4-3 in a tight match on Tuesday afternoon. The loss drops the Tigers’ record to 9-4 in Division II, heading into the playoffs. 

“We’ve got a lot of seniors this year,” said first singles player Ben Pacheco. “We are excited for playoffs. It’s our third year in D-II. We’ve made it to the semifinals the last two years and we are looking to get over the hump and make it different this season.”  

Pacheco and Ben Sowa each won their match. Pacheco, the Tigers’ first singles player, beat Hadley Martinez in straight sets 6-4, 6-2. Sowa, the Tigers’ third singles player, also won in straight sets, beating Nate Ward, 6-4 and 7-5. 

Tigers’ second singles player Connor Nobrega and fourth singles player Josh Guillemette both lost in three sets as Narragansett knotted the match 2-2. Nogrega won the first set 6-4, but Mariners’ Jake Pietrzak won the second set 6-2 and beat Nobrega, 7-5 in the third set. Guillemette also won the first set 6-3. But Mariners’ Parker Harrison won the second set 7-5 and beat him 6-0 in the third set. 

Tigers’ first doubles team of Ryan Poland and Nate Sama lost their match in straight sets 6-4, 7-5. Then Tigers’ third doubles team Aidan Sweeney and Nick Rielly beat Ryan Martin and Matt Woodmansee 7-5, 7-5 to again tie the match 3-3. 

Tigers’ second doubles pair of Thomas Costa and John Mello lost their first set 6-2, to Mariners’ Dan Labore and Dylan Woodruff. But the Tigers rallied back to win the second set 6-3 and battled to even the set 6-6 in the third set before falling 12-10 in the tie breaker. 

“It was a really close match,” said head coach Bill Phillips. “Our players have had a great season thus far. They trained all winter and played outside as long as it was above 40 degrees. We never missed a week. They are very determined to win.”

With the regular season over. The fourth place Tigers will practice this week, while waiting to hear about the playoffs.