NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. -- The Bentley University men's tennis team saw their two-year reign as Northeast-10 Conference champions end Saturday afternoon when the Falcons dropped a 5-1 decision to the Merrimack College Warriors in the 2012 NE-10 championship match at North Andover High School.

The doubles team of sophomore Andrew Waddington (Granby, Conn./Granby Memorial HS) and junior Lucas Wever (Sao Paulo, Brazil) defeated Petar Golijanin and Chris Toegemann for Bentley's only victory in doubles, winning 8-2.  The Warriors entered singles with a 2-1 lead as Max Appley and Sean Pahler edged the Falcon duo of senior Zach Tuckman (Kinnelon, N.J./Morristown Beard School) and junior Rodrigo Ribeiro (Sao Paulo, Brazil), 9-8, and Vince Bellino and Chris Barnhart defeated Bentley's Alec Spycher (Sarasota, Fla./Saint Stephens Episcopal) and Raghav Tanna (Burlington/ Burlington HS), 8-2.

In singles, the Warriors received wins from Eppley at second singles, Pahler at number five and Toergemann at number six to lock up their first-ever NE-10 title. The other three singles matches went unfinished after Merrimack clinched the victory.

Merrimack improved to 17-7 overall while the Falcons fell to 15-6.  The Warriors won the conference's automatic qualifier for the upcoming NCAA Division II Championships, and Bentley is likely to receive an an-large bid.