PHILADELPHIA – The Philadelphia University men's tennis team opened Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) play with a 7-2 victory over visiting Caldwell Saturday afternoon in the Legacy Youth Tennis Center.

Philadelphia (6-6, 1-0 CACC) was a winner in two of the three doubles matches.

After dropping the No. 1 doubles match, the No. 2 tandem of Sean DiBlasio (Livingston, Texas/Livingston) and Matt Germani (Blackwood, N.J./Highland) got the Rams on track with an 8-4 win over Christopher Long and Pedro Vizcaino. Nail Rachidi (Meknes, Morocco/Emile Anouar) and Long Vo (Harleysville, Pa./Souderton Area) put Philadelphia in the lead as they teamed up to take out Yuvraj Bains and Andrej Bozovic 8-3 at No. 3.

In singles play, Celso de Vera Rehberger (Oviedo, Spain/Santa Maria del Naranco) put Philadelphia back in the lead, 3-2, as he rallied to defeat Hugo Castaian in a battle of No. 1s, 2-6, 6-3, 6-1. Nicolas Affolter (Freienbach, Switzerland/Kantonsschule Ausserschwz) padded the lead as he, like de Vera Rehberger, came from a set down to earn a win. Affolter lost the first set against Maximillan Ziegler 6-2, but bounced back to take the last two sets of the No. 2 match, 6-0, 6-2.

James Pollard (Mechanicsville, Va./Hanover) clinched the match for Philadelphia with a 6-0, 6-1 triumph over Vizcaino at No. 6. Pollard was the only Ram to win in straight sets.

Vo took the No. 4 match 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 against Long and Rachidi needed three sets to get by Bains at No. 5 3-6, 6-2, 6-1.

Caldwell is now 2-7 overall, 0-1 in CACC play.

Philadelphia hosts Bloomfield in a conference match on Tuesday, March 24 at 3:30 p.m.