BOX SCORESWARTHMORE, Pa.–The Swarthmore College men's tennis team (6-5, 2-0 CC) earned its second straight win over a nationally-ranked opponent as it edged out No. 21 Johns Hopkins (5-2, 1-1 CC) by a 5-4 margin on Saturday, April 2.
The Garnet handed the Blue Jays their first Centennial Conference loss in nearly 10 years, snapping an 84-match streak that dated back to April 20, 2006. It was also Swarthmore's first win over Hopkins since a 6-1 home victory on March 17, 2006.
The no. 3 doubles team of
John Larkin and
Blake Oetting earned the first point for the Garnet with an 8-5 victory over Justin Kang and Scott Thygesen.
Ari Cepelewicz and
Simon Vernier fought hard, but fell 5-8 at no. 2 doubles and the regionally-ranked team of
Mark Fallati and
Josh Powell came up just a hair short in a narrow, 8-9(6) defeat in the first doubles spot. In that match, both sides held serve until the fourth point of the tiebreaker.
The Garnet rebounded by taking the first three singles courts. Fallati beat Mike Buxbaum, 6-4, 6-4 at the no. 1 spot and Larkin also triumphed in straight sets with a 7-5, 6-3 result. At no. 3 singles, Cepelewicz battled Thygesen and emerged with a 7-6(4), 2-6, 7-5 win.
Vernier and
James Hahn both suffered close losses, but Swarthmore won the day as Powell grinded out a 6-3, 7-6(5) triumph at the no. 6 spot. Trailing 1-2 in the tiebreaker, Powell earned a decisive break as he won four of the next five points and closed out the match on his service.
Swarthmore hosts McDaniel and no. 27 Mary Washington on Sunday, April 3.
