The UNCW men’s tennis team handled Lees-McRae with ease this past Friday as they swept the Bobcats in the spring home opener. The Seahawks improved to 2-2 on the young season.

The day started out with three doubles matches, all won by the Seahawks. UNCW’s No. 1 doubles team of Ryan Ybarra and Gustavo Bertei began the day by dominating Steve Karendal and Travis Van Hoy 8-1. The No. 2 team of Kinshuk Sharma and Michael Pereira won 8-5 and the No. 3 team of Alex Wetherell and Illia Ziamtsou won 8-6.

In the singles matches, the Seahawks experienced equal success. Each Seahawk won his respective match, highlighted by Michael Pereira’s breeze by of Shaun Sumner, 6-2, 6-1. But rather than focus on his own victory, Pereira was impressed by how the entire team played on Friday.

“This was our best performance as a team,” he said. “It was a great team atmosphere and we really put out a good team effort.”

The Seahawks have now put together two impressive wins in a row, having defeated Wright State 5-1 two weekends ago. However, Pereira admitted that it was important that everyone on the team leave the match with a victory on Friday.

“It’s really important when everyone leaves the court feeling good about the match,” he said. “It was really big for our freshmen. It’s important for them to build confidence early.”

It was especially important for highly regarded freshman Ryan Ybarra to start the season off strong, according to Pereira. Ybarra looks to be a key player for the Seahawks this season as he picked up his first win on Friday.

“It was important that [Ryan] Ybarra got his first win of the season,” Pereira said. “It’s going to give him a lot of confidence heading into his next match.”

Confidence looks to play a huge role for the Seahawks, as it does all young teams. UNCW has two freshmen, four sophomores and only one senior on this year’s team. The Seahawks will rely on quality play from its underclassmen; something last year’s team did not have to do. Three juniors and a senior headlined last year’s team.

The Seahawks face Elon next Sunday, Feb. 15. The match will be at Elon at 1 p.m. UNCW then comes back to Wilmington for a four-match home stand followed by a match at Coastal Carolina before staring conference play Mar. 7 against Old Dominion.

The Seahawks look to build off this two game win-streak and hopefully make it to the CAA championship for the first time in school history.

“Our goal is to win conference,” Pereira said. “We have the talent to make it there, we just need to continue to have a high energy level and good team effort.”