CASTLETON, Vt. – Castleton suffered a tough defeat this afternoon in the North Atlantic Conference East Division Championship, falling to the Colby-Sawyer Chargers at the Castleton Tennis Courts, 5-0. 

The Chargers swept the doubles games and claimed the top two singles matches to claim their fifth straight NAC East Title. Colby-Sawyer now stands at 14-5 on the year and will square off with Penn State Abington in the NAC Crossover Championship on May 8. The Spartans, meanwhile, finish the season with the most wins since going 16-3 in 2011 at 11-4 overall. 

Colby-Sawyer took an early 1-0 lead thanks to an 8-1 victory in top-flight doubles by Gustav Jigrup and Andrew Peloquin. Soren Pelz-Walsh and Quentin Barthe went back-and-forth with Dean Boodakian and Ryan Sawyer in second doubles, but the Chargers pairing broke a 6-6 deadlock with two straight points to secure an 8-6 victory. Similar to the second-flight match, the tandem of Andrew Overton and Ryan Mulder fought back from a 5-2 deficit in third doubles to make it 5-4, but Colby-Sawyer completed the doubles sweep with another 8-6 win.

With just two points needed to secure the championship, the match didn't last much longer, as Jigrup and Alex Wright, who was named Tournament MVP, claimed the No. 1 and 2 singles matches in straight sets to clinch the 5-0 victory. Pelz-Walsh was even with Ryan Sawyer at 6-6 in the first set at the time of finish in third singles. Boodakian took the first set of fourth-flight singles 6-4, but Barthe held a 2-1 lead in the second set. Overton was trailing 6-3, 3-1 in the No. 5 spot, while Trevor Hanna was leading 3-2 in the second set after dropping the first.