NEW LONDON, Conn. — 

The United States Coast Guard Academy tennis team was dropped a mid-week match day, 1-6, to New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) foes Clark University on Thursday, April 2nd. The lone point for the Bears came from singles.

Coast Guard drops to 0-4 on the season and 0-2 in conference match-ups, while Clark improves to 10-3 overall and 1-1 in NEWMAC play. The Cougars will look to make it back-to-back wins on Saturday, April 4th, at Springfield College (5-5, 1-0 NEWMAC).

The Bears started the evening by losing in doubles, 1-2, with the one win there coming from junior Ben Bonetto (Bend, Oreg.) and senior Brendan Love (Winchester, Va.) at #1. The pair beat Clark's top duo of Edward Shepherd-Johnson and Graham Russo, 6-4, to improve to 2-2 in match play on the season, while Shepherd-Johnson and Russo dropped to 9-4 as a team.

Bonetto also defeated Shepherd-Johnson in three sets at #1 singles, coming back from a first set loss of 4-6 to take the next two at 6-0 and 6-1, giving Coast Guard what ended up as their only point of the day in the process. Bonetto improves to 2-3 in his junior season, while Shepherd-Johnson's updated singles record mirrors his doubles record with Russo at 9-4.

Bears tennis will return to action on Saturday, April 4th, at Salve Regina University (0-9, 0-2 NEWMAC). Coast Guard will look for some déjà vu against the Seahawks, who they defeated with a 6-1 result in last season's conference schedule opener.