HAVERFORD, Pa. – Squaring off against its fourth nationally-ranked opponent during the non-conference portion of the schedule, the Haverford College men's tennis team claimed the top doubles position against No. 18 Kalamazoo on Wednesday evening. However, the Hornets (6-1) stung back with wins in the remaining eight matches inside the Lutnick Tennis Center.
In the top doubles position, Josh Moskovitz and Dais Nakayama continued to take great strides as a pairing. Wednesday's 8-3 win against the nationally-ranked Hornets was the duo's third straight this spring.
The two tightest matches in doubles swung the momentum back in favor of the visitors. David Kong and Eli Phelps were edged out by an 8-6 score in the second doubles match. Raja Arul and Nick Sweeney split the first 14 games of their No. 3 doubles match, but were denied by a 7-2 score in the tiebreak.
Playing indoors on only the four courts, Eli Phelps dropped a hard-fought three set match in the fourth singles spot. He jumped out to a 1-0 lead with a 6-4 opening set. Kevin Yan looked poised to push his match to a decisive third set, but fell in a 7-2 tiebreak during the second set at No. 3 singles. Moskovitz and Nakayama assumed the top two singles positions and were undone by regionally-ranked adversaries. Moskovitz's match came against the No. 15 player in the entire country.
Haverford did force 10-point tiebreaks in each of the final two matches to hit the courts. Ishaan Prinz opened his evening at No. 5 singles with a 6-4 win. He had that score turned against him during the second set before his opponent emerged a 10-6 winner in the tiebreak. Arul was also up a set early with a 6-3 start to his match. However, No. 6 singles went to Kalamazoo with the tiebreak going 10-7 in favor of the Hornets.
With a challenging opening part of the season, the Fords will now look for those tough matches to pay dividends when Centennial Conference play opens this weekend. Haverford begins the conference slate with a 1 p.m. start against McDaniel this Saturday.