ALLENTOWN, Pa. – The Haverford College men's tennis team kept its momentum rolling on Tuesday evening as the Fords racked up their fifth Centennial Conference victory of the season with a 9-0 sweep at Muhlenberg. The Fords' 9-0 blanking was their second such match of the season. Today's win – the team's 11th in a row – tied the fifth longest winning streak in program history. That streak was last accomplished during the 2007 season. It was first done over the 1925-26 seasons.
The Fords allowed just three games in total during doubles action and then rolled through singles competition with six straight set victories. Haverford mixed up the doubles lineup and found great success at all three positions. Luis Acaba teamed up with Dais Nakayama at the No. 1 position. Haverford's top pairing did not allow a game in its 8-0 victory.
The No. 2 team of Ishaan Prinz and Eli Phelps conceded just two games in the middle pairing. Caleb Mayer and Keisuke Sawada dropped just one game on the way to an 8-1 decision. Prinz and Phelps teamed up for just the second time this spring and improved to 3-1 on the season dating back to the fall. Haverford's first and third doubles were seeing their first action together all season.
Sophomores Nakayama and Prinz assumed the top two positions in singles. Nakayama recorded his first victory of the season in the No. 1 position in what turned out to be the tightest match of Tuesday's dual. Nakayama won 6-4 in the opening set and took a tiebreak to seal his victory. Prinz played his highest ranked match of the spring season at No. 2 singles. Nonetheless, he cruised to his fifth straight victory with identical 6-2 set scores. Prinz is also 4-0 in Centennial Conference singles action.
Zack Mason joined the singles lineup at No. 3 and used a 6-3, 6-2 victory to run his record to 9-2 on the season. That record includes a 3-1 mark against conference foes. Phelps came back from a doubles victory and won his highest ranked match of the spring with a 6-3, 6-3 win at No. 4. He is now 2-0 in singles this spring.
After teaming up in doubles, Mayer and Sawada continued their success in singles. Mayer was a 6-1, 6-3 winner at No. 5 singles. He is now 2-0 on the season in singles. Sawada also won his second match of the spring in as many attempts. His win at No. 6 was the most convincing singles victory of the evening as he won 6-3, 6-0.
Men's tennis is currently tied with Swarthmore for first place in the Centennial Conference standings. Just one match separates the top four teams in the conference. The Fords will face the first of those key matches this Saturday when the team travels to No. 21 Johns Hopkins. That match in Baltimore is set for a 12 p.m. start.