It was 10 years ago today that the Bentley men's tennis team won the first of two back-to-back NE10 championships. We caught up with Bentley alum Lucas Wever from his home in Brazil, who was just a freshman on that team and a 2013 graduate, to hear some of this thoughts on that team and what he has been up to since graduating.

First some background. The Falcons were a deeply talented, and diverse team that season. Lucas and teammate Rodrigo Ribeiro both represented Sao Paulo, Brazil. They both went on to captain the men's tennis team as seniors for the 2012-13 season.

The country of Ecuador was represented by team captain Lorenzo Cava, who had transferred to Bentley in 2008 from Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. Cava had to sit out the 2008-09 season due to NCAA transfer rules, but his play in 2009-10 proved that he was worth the wait. The senior was dominant in the 09-10 season, as he put together a 26-1 record in singles and was named the NE10 Player of the Year and a CoSIDA Academic All-American.

India was also represented on that team with sophomore Jigar Gada, and players on that team hailed from five other states.

Cava was far from the only Falcon that season to be honored by the NE10. Wever was named the Freshman of the Year after he put together a perfect record in conference play, 10-0 in both singles and doubles during the regular season. Ribeiro, who often teamed with Wever in doubles play, was perfect in NE10 play as well at 10-0 in singles and 9-0 in doubles.

That impressive trio were three of six Falcons that season to be named first team All-Conference in either singles or doubles, with Victor Suski, Alec Spycher and Zach Tuckman, all sophomores that season, chosen first team All-Conference in doubles.

With that collection of talent, the Falcons steamrolled the opposition. They went 17-6 overall and a perfect 11-0 in the NE10 regular season. That dominance extended to the NE10 Tournament, where they won all three matches 5-0 on their way to the title. Saint Michael's and Adelphi were brushed aside in the first two rounds, and the crowning achievement came in the finals against Merrimack with a sweep on April 25, 2010.

That earned the team a trip to the NCAA East Regional as the No. 3 seed. The strong play continued with a 5-0 sweep of NE10 rival Stonehill in the first round, before the run was ended in the second round with a 5-2 defeat to Queens (N.Y.).

Much of the same team returned the following season, minus Cava who graduated, but the end result was the same as the Falcons claimed the 2011 NE10 title. The road to that title was a little more fraught, but the team showed the resilience of champions.

After a 10-1 record in the NE10 regular season and a 5-0 sweep of Le Moyne in the first round of the playoffs, they faced Merrimack in the semifinals in a match that went down to the wire. Tied at 3-3, Bentley won the final two singles matches to prevail.

Wever played a big part, winning a hard-fought three set match, 5-7, 7-5, 6-5. He fought off two match points in the 2^nd set, and trailed 5-1 in the 3^rd set before he staged an epic rally to win the match. Alec Spycher, who was the team captain that year as a junior, won the final singles match 7-6, 3-6, 6-1 to give Bentley the 5-4 win.

In the finals against the top seed Southern New Hampshire, Bentley trailed 4-3, but dug deep to rally to the victory. Victor Suski and freshman Andrew Waddington won the final two singles matches in progress to propel the Falcons to their second straight NE10 title.

To commemorate the 10 year anniversary of Bentley's 2010 NE10 champions, we were fortunate to catch up with Lucas Wever, who shared his thoughts on that team and where his career has taken him after graduating.

On the experience of winning the NE10 Championship:  

"Obviously it was a great experience winning the NE10 for Bentley my freshmen after the school had gone so long without a title. Our team was very strong that year and we went undefeated in the conference. As a freshmen, I definitely took it for granted how "easy" it was to win the conference that first year. I would definitely come to see how hard it actually was in the subsequent years (although we did win again the following year and were runner ups the year after that)." 

"At a personal level, it was great experience being named Freshman of the Year by the conference and going undefeated in both singles and doubles. I still have the awards hung up on my wall here at home." 

On the team dynamics that season:

"That team was special in many ways, we had an extremely talented and stacked team. There were guys from all over the world that had extremely complementary talents on the court and also managed to bond very well off of it. We also had a very passionate coach that drove us to be the best team possible." 

"It was generally a very young team of mostly freshmen and sophomores, so we managed to maintain that core and achieve good success the following years as well (and had a lot of fun while doing so)."

On where his career has taken him after Bentley:

"Seven years later I am now a Director at an Investment Bank in Brazil, and I can say without a doubt that Bentley has had a huge impact on my career both in the classroom and on the courts."

"Academically, I had a very solid base going into my first jobs which really set me apart from my peers and allowed me early promotions. Athletically, I definitely carried over the competitive drive to be successful from the Bentley tennis courts to the real world."