TOURNAMENT HOMEPAGE

SALEM, Mass. - The No. 4-seeded Salem State men's tennis team (6-6, 3-3 LEC) hosts No. 5-seeded WestConn (5-12, 2-4 LEC) in the Little East Conference (LEC) First Round on Tuesday, April 28 at 3:30 p.m., while being played at Gordon College.

Five Things to Know

• Salem enters the tournament as the fourth seed and has been seeded at four or higher in four of the last five seasons.
• The Vikings will be looking to add their fourth LEC Tournament Championship to the program's history.
• Salem's six wins are the most since the 2022-23 season, when the squad went 11-3.
• The Blue and Orange topped the Wolves 4-3 earlier this year, which recently snapped a two-match losing streak to WestConn.
• Salem and WestConn have met three times in the postseason, with the Wolves having taken all three matchups. 

Who to Watch For

• The No.1 pairing of Quentin Wilkins (Hamilton, Mass.) and Mark Wood (Lynn, Mass.) highlighted doubles action this year. The duo enters Tuesday, having won two of their last three, and has an overall record of 8-4. In singles, Wilkins led the squad this year with a record of 10-2 and has won 10 of his last 11 singles contests at the top spot.
• First-year students Ian Ronan (Quincy, Mass.) and Jesse Rubera (Haverhill, Mass.) also had a strong impact on the Vikings this year. The duo was also one of Salem's other dominant doubles pairings, having won six contests while Ronan had eight singles wins, with Rubera not far behind at four. 
• Leading the Wolves in singles is sophomore Alex Maldonado, who posted a 9-8 record. Not far behind Maldonado is fellow sophomore Axel Javier with an 8-6 mark in singles.
• In doubles for WestConn, the pairing of Maldonado and Henry Gsell led the Wolves at 10-6, mostly at the No. 3 position. 

What's Next

The winner of Tuesday's match will play at the top-seeded Bridgewater State on Thursday at 3 p.m., and the championship finals will be held at the highest remaining seed on Saturday, May 2. The winner of the Little East championship Tournament will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament.