HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College men's tennis team hosted its annual Alumni Match over the weekend. Additionally, this weekend marked another special occasion as a new record of 35 alumni returned to campus to celebrate the 20th anniversary of head coach Sean Sloane at Haverford who was honored at a banquet following the alumni matches.
"This year's Alumni Tennis Match was one to remember," stated coach Sloane. "Thanks to all who participated in the match and the dinner afterwards!! On a hot September day 35 alumni (a new high!) showed up to beat the outnumbered 16-man varsity."
With high numbers on a high September day, this year's match was played under a unique format. At 1 p.m., eight varsity doubles teams faced off against eight alumni teams while four alumni doubles teams played the remaining four alumni teams, allowing everybody involved to play a doubles. Matches were 6-game sets, no-ad scoring. Results of the first round below:
Doubles: Varsity 4, Alumni 4
Josh Moskovitz/Dais Nakayama def. Luis Acaba '16/Harrison Elbert '16, 6-2
Raja Arul/David Kong def. Bruce Nisbet '95/Nathaniel Sergay '12, 6-3
Matthew Cebul '13/Matt Romei '14 def. Ishaan Prinz/Kevin Yan, 6-4
Rob Kresch/Nick Sweeney def. Keisuke Sawada '17/Hailiu Yang '11, 6-1
Arnav Patodia/Benjamin Soloway def. Marc Adelberg '08/Elmer Trust '07, 6-3
Andrew Dougherty '14/Daniel Himelstein '13 def. Jeff Himelstein/Jun Mo, 6-0
Stephen Feder '09/Marc Rudolph '09 def. Matthew Danielson/Andrew Linden, 6-1
Ben Greenfield '06/Lee def. Adam Branovan/Scott Kozarsky, 6-2
The second round of matches featured 12 singles, pro sets to eight games, no-ad scoring.
Singles: Varsity 7, Alumni 5 (varsity leads 11-9 overall)
Josh Moskovitz def. Bruce Nisbet '95, 8-3
Luis Acaba '16 def. Dais Nakayama, 8-6
Kevin Yan def. Harrison Elbert '16, 8-3
Nathaniel Sergay '12 def. Ishaan Prinz, 8-6
Raja Arul def. Matt Romei '14, 8-6
David Kong def. Andrew Dougherty '14, 9-7
Matthew Cebul '13 def. Nick Sweeney, 8-7
Rob Kresch def. Hailiu Yang '11, 8-0
Marc Adelberg '08 def. Benjamin Soloway, 8-3
Stephen Feder '09 def. Jeff Himelstein, 8-0
Elmer Trust '07 def. Jun Mo, 8-7
Marc Rudolph '09 def. Scott Kozarsky, 8-3
After the second round, the alumni brought in their reserves for the final round to test their skills against a varsity side that had already played two matches
Singles: Alumni 7, Varsity 5 (final score tied, 16-16)
David Kong def. John Cummings '14, 8-0
John Homan '16 def. Ishaan Prinz, 8-6
Jeff Himelstein def. Scott Wallace '72
Rob Kresch def. Brian Simms '01, 8-1
Nick Sweeney def. Penn Tong '09, 8-2
Ben Greenfield def. Scott Kozarsky, 3-0, ret.
Raja Arul def. Keisuke Sawada '17, 6-2
Benjamin Horwitz '17 def. Yancheng Dai, 8-1
Benjamin Soloway def. Matthew Buczek '17, 8-7(6)
Max Schotz '17 def. Yancheng Dai, 8-1
Ankur Arya '12/Daniel Himelstein '13 def. Adam Branovan/Scott Kozarsky, 8-1
Matthew Danielson/Andrew Linden def. Stephen Grief '67/Bob Swift '68, 8-6
Matthew Danielson vs. Jason Hirsch '16, 5-5 (abandoned)
This was the third tie in the Alumni match history. The first tie was in the very first match in 1997 (6-6). The second tie was in 2015 (14-14). The Alumni now lead the all-time series by a 10-8 margin in addition to those three ties.