SWARTHMORE, PA. - Taking down both a Centennial rival and a top-ten team in the country, the No. 29 Swarthmore men's tennis team felled No. 8 Johns Hopkins University by a score of 5-4 on Saturday, Apr. 1.
The Garnet kicked off the day swinging in doubles play, capturing two of the three matches to take a 2-1 lead headed into singles. While Johns Hopkins kept the match close, they simply could not match the ferocity of Swarthmore's rackets, with the Garnet taking down the Blue Jays 5-4.
Doubles:
- The Garnet came out hot in their doubles contests, with the duo of first year
Max Lindstrom/junior
Rushil Patel claiming an easy 8-1 victory in the No. 2 seeded match to put Swarthmore up 1-0.
- The pair of first year
Michael Melnikov/first year
Utham Koduri followed up that win with one of their own, coming out on top in a tough fought No. 1 seeded match by a score of 8[7]-7[1].
- Swarthmore's only doubles loss came in the No. 3 match, when the team of sophomore
Max Pogorelov/first year
Andres Fente fell 8-3.
- With their doubles success, the Garnet went into singles up 2-1 over the Blue Jays.
Singles:
- Swarthmore did not allow their momentum to dissipate in their singles matchups, with Melnikov capturing a hard fought 6-2,1-6,1[12]-0[10] victory in the No. 1 seeded match, increasing the Garnet's lead to 3-1.
- While Johns Hopkins was able to respond in the No. 2 match, taking down Lindstrom by a score of 7-5,4-6,1[10]-0[8], first year
Lalith Suresh answered back with a three-setter of his own, coming out on top 4-6,6-3,1[10]-0[3] in the No. 3 match. At 4-2, the Garnet were one point away from securing the upset over Hopkins.
- Not going down without a fight, the Blue Jays took the No. 4 match 6-3,6-4 over senior
Josiah Myers-Lipton, shrinking the Garnet's margain to 4-3.
- Undeterred, first year
Aamish Pal kept his cool, seizing a 6-2,6-2 win in the No. 6 slot for the Garnet's fifth and decisive point, securing Swarthmore's triumph over Johns Hopkins, their first since April of 2016.
UP NEXT
Kicking off a five match road stretch, the Garnet will travel to No. 29 Haverford College on Thursday, Apr. 6 at 4:00 p.m.
