CHESTERTOWN, Md. – The Haverford College men's tennis team doubled up the Washington College Shoremen by a 6-3 score Wednesday evening. The Fords (9-1, 3-0 CC), who have now won nine straight matches, grabbed an early edge with a pair of wins in doubles and carried that momentum into four more singles victories against the host Shoremen (2-9, 1-2 CC).
In doubles action, both Haverford's No. 1 and No. 2 pairings were 8-4 winners. At No. 1 doubles, Luis Acaba and Harrison Elbert ran their record together at the top of the lineup to 6-1 on the season. They have won six straight matches. Josh Moskovitz and Dais Nakayama matched that victory at No. 2 as they improved their record to 4-2 during the spring season, including a perfect 2-0 mark in conference play.
Haverford threatened to make it a clean sweep of doubles play as the No. 3 pairing of Ishaan Prinz and Nick Sweeney raced out to a 5-1 lead. However, the Shoremen's No. 3 doubles rallied for an 8-6 win to climb back within a single team point.
Haverford had three players win both their singles and doubles matches on Wednesday night. Those first three singles winners would ultimately clinch the match for the Fords. Moskovitz continued his undefeated spring singles season with a 6-0, 6-3 victory. The freshman is now 8-0 on the spring season after his latest win at No. 3. Acaba put the Fords on the brink of victory with identical 6-3 set wins at the top of the singles' lineup. He has now won three straight matches and is 6-1 at No. 1 singles this spring.
Elbert clinched Haverford's fifth team point with his win at No. 4. The Fords' senior co-captain has now won five straight matches after his 7-5, 6-2 win at Washington College. Like his fellow co-captain, Elbert is 6-1 in singles during the spring season. Of the four matches that finished in straight sets, the Shoremen needed a first set tiebreak to claim the victory at No. 2 singles.
The final two matches on court both went to decisive third sets. The two teams split those matches with Prinz claiming the Fords' victory at No. 5 singles. He jumped in front with a 6-4 opening set win. A 6-3 second set went the way of his opponent; however, he turned the tables on that score in the final set. Zack Mason also jumped out to an early lead with a 6-2 win in his opening set. Nevertheless, his opponent battled back for the Shoremen's final point of the night.
Men's tennis will put its nine-match winning streak on the line this Saturday when the Fords welcomes Dickinson to campus at 1 p.m. Saturday's match will be a rematch of last year's Centennial Conference first round bout that was claimed by the Fords with a 5-2 score after the Red Devils took the regular season meeting between the two institutions.