AMHERST, MASS — The 30th-ranked Skidmore College Mustangs defeated the University of Southern Maine Huskies 5-0 in the first round of the 2015 NCAA Division III Men’s Tennis National Championship Tournament Thursday afternoon at the Amherst College Tennis Courts.

Mt. Blue grad and Cougar tennis standout Thaddeus St. John (Weld) played a key role for the Huskies in their run to the Division III championships, posting an overall record of 11-2 this season.

Making their eighth straight appearance in the NCAA tourney, the Mustangs improve to 13-7 on the season and advance to play Stevens Institute of Technology (19-5) in the second round of the tourney on Friday (1:00 p.m.). Southern Maine, making its second straight appearance in the NCAAs, sees its 10-match win-streak come to an end, dropping its overall record to 12-3.

Skidmore jumped out to a commanding 3-0 lead after the doubles points were played out. Skidmore sophomore Kai Yuen Leung (Sha Ting, Hong Kong/La Salle College) and junior Nicholas Tong (Rancho Palos Verdes,Calif./Palos Verdes Peninsula) battled to an 8-6 win over the USM tandem of junior Tyler Adams (Buxton, Maine/Bonny Eagle) and senior Scott Gagne (Lewiston, Maine) at first doubles in the tightest match of the day.

With a 3-0 lead in hand, Skidmore earned the final two points it needed to claim the win at fifth and sixth singles. Freshman Ted Berkowitz (Fairfield, Conn./Fairfield Warde) downed Southern Maine junior Eric Berry-Saudelin (South Portland, Maine) 6-0, 6-0 at fifth singles. At sixth singles, sophomore Maxwell Swerdlick (Calabasas, Calif./Calabasas) defeated junior Sebastien Taylor (Auburn, Maine/Edward Little) 6-0, 6-0.

Southern Maine earned its automatic qualification to the NCAA tournament by capturing the Little East Conference tournament championship with a 5-0 win over the UMass Dartmouth Corsairs on Saturday. The Huskies’ finished the LEC regular season circuit undefeated at 6-0, earning the top seed in the championship tournament. USM advanced to the finals with a 5-0 win over Rhode Island College in the semifinals.

Southern Maine’s 2015 trip to the NCAA tournament is its second consecutive having captured back-to-back LEC titles in 2014 and 2015. Southern Maine has competed in the NCAA tournament three times in 2007, 2014 and 2015. In the 2007 NCAA tournament, the Huskies’ recorded its first ever NCAA win defeating Ithaca College 5-4 to advance to the second round before falling to Middlebury College 5-0.