HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College men's tennis team swept through Centre College on Tuesday afternoon in the team's first home match on the outdoor courts this spring. With a stark contrast in weather compared to a week ago, the Fords were able to get on the outdoor Norman B. Bramall Tennis Courts for the first time this spring.
To complete the sweep of all nine positions, several Haverford players triumphed through tiebreaks as five of the nine matches featured extra points or a tiebreak during a set. The Fords also showcased their depth as just two players, Josh Moskovitz and Ishaan Prinz, competed in both singles and doubles.
To get his first of two victories on the afternoon, Moskovitz teamed up with Dais Nakayama and recorded the duo's second straight win together in the No. 1 doubles position. The Fords' top pairing evenly split the first 14 games before securing a 7-3 win in the tiebreak.
Haverford's win in the second and third doubles spots came much easier. Ishaan Prinz and Kevin Yan were paired together for the first time all spring, but showed no signs of unfamiliarity together with an 8-2 win at No. 2 doubles. Rob Kresch and Arnav Patodia improved to a perfect 2-0 in the spring with the most convincing win of doubles, an 8-1 decision. The pairing of Kresch and Patodia is now 5-1 on the year dating back to the ITA Regional.
Five of the Fords' six wins in singles came via straight sets, but four of the singles matches featured tiebreaks. Prinz made the quickest work of his match, notching a 6-1, 6-2 victory in the third singles spot for his second win of the afternoon. He now has a winning record at 5-4 overall for the year. Eli Phelps saw his first action of the day at No. 2 singles. Phelps also did not need a tiebreak with back-to-back 6-3 set wins as he moved to 5-3 on the season.
Moskovitz was a 6-3 winner in the first set, but needed extra games in the second to secure a straight set win. He captured the top singles match with a 7-5 score in the second. The Fords' sophomore matched his aforementioned teammates with a team-best five singles wins so far this year. In the No. 4 position, Raja Arul persevered during a 7-2 tiebreak win in his first set and improved his record to 3-1 this year with a 6-2 second set win.
Haverford also needed tiebreaks in the final two positions to lock down the team sweep. David Kong rolled to a 6-1 first set victory. However, he would need extra points in his second set tiebreak, an 8-6 tiebreak win, to record his first collegiate singles victory. Nick Sweeney had the tiebreak work against him in the second set following a 6-3 triumph in the opener. However, he came through with an 11-9 win in the 10-point tiebreak to lock the score at a 9-0 victory for the Fords.
Men's tennis will be back at home tomorrow afternoon when the team takes on No. 18 Kalamazoo. That match is also scheduled for a 4 p.m. first serve and will mark the fourth nationally-ranked opponent the Fords have played during the non-conference portion of the schedule.