DANA POINT, Calif. – The No. 8 Swarthmore College men's tennis team came out on top in a battle of nationally-ranked squads on Wednesday, defeating No. 23 Sewanee 4-3 at the Dana Hills Tennis Center in California.
The Garnet won the doubles point then the two sides went back and forth in singles play. With the score even at three,
Rishi Verma gave Swarthmore the victory with a gutsy win at third singles.
HOW IT HAPPENED
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Kai Chen and
Andres Fente got the Garnet off to a strong start, rolling to a 6-1 triumph at second doubles.
Utham Koduri and
Michael Melnikov clinched a 1-0 lead for Swarthmore with a tough 7-5 victory at the first spot over the Tigers' eighth-ranked duo.
Max Lindstrom and
Winston Zhang nearly gave the Garnet a sweep but fell in a tiebreaker, 6-7 (3-7).
- Sewanee evened the match at one with a 6-1, 6-0 success against
Aamish Pal at fifth singles.
Lalith Suresh regained the lead for Swarthmore with a solid 6-4, 6-2 win at the fourth position. However, the Tigers clawed back again with a 6-0, 6-4 victory over Melnikov at the first flight, snapping his four-match win streak.
- The see-saw tilted back to the Garnet with Lindstrom's 6-3, 6-4 triumph at the second spot. Sewanee drew the match even one final time, earning a 6-0, 4-6, 6-0 decision versus
Aadhi Raja at sixth singles.
- The match came down to third singles. Trailing 4-3 in the opening set, Verma reeled off three straight games to come back for a 6-4 win and the upper hand. Verma dropped the first game of the second set but responded with three in a row for a 3-1 advantage. It was the first of two two-game leads for Verma but the Tigers rallied to tie it each time. Deadlocked at five, Verma went out in front once again with a chance to claim the match. The sophomore fell behind on serve, 0-30, but came back with three consecutive points for a match point opportunity. Sewanee survived and brought up deuce point but Verma would not be denied, winning the next point and grabbing the match for Swarthmore.
UP NEXT
The Garnet (3-3) take on another tough opponent in No. 12 Washington University in St. Louis on Friday.
