BRONX, N.Y. – The Haverford College men's tennis team fell to No. 27 NYU (1-0) by a 6-3 score in its season opener on Saturday. The Fords (0-1) got a win from the pairing of Dais Nakayama and Kevin Yan in doubles, while Ishaan Prinz and David Kong were both victorious in singles.
Playing No. 2 doubles, Nakayama and Yan were able to come away with an 8-6 victory in the middle position. The Fords nearly flipped the doubles advantage in their favor, but the team of Josh Moskovitz and Kong was edged out by a 9-7 score during a match which was decided in the final two games. The No. 3 doubles match went to the nationally-ranked Violets by an 8-4 score.
With the momentum of that No. 1 doubles victory, NYU came back even stronger in singles and claimed four straight set victories. Nakayama had the closest of those four matches as he went to a second set tiebreak at No. 4 singles, before falling by a 7-5 tiebreak tally.
Prinz and Kong both won 10-point tiebreaks to finish the day on a strong note for the Fords. Playing No. 3 singles, Prinz stormed out to a commanding advantage with a 6-1 first set victory. His opponent won a tiebreaker in the second set before the Haverford co-captain came back with an 11-9 victory in the final tiebreak. Kong needed an extra game to get his singles match started with a 7-5 first set win. Dropping the second set by a hard-fought 6-4 score, the sophomore rallied for a 12-10 tiebreak win in the third.
Men's tennis will now have two full weeks before its home opener against Salisbury on Saturday, March 10. First serves in that match will get underway at 1 p.m. That will also kick off a busy stretch for the team as it will depart for Orlando during the College's week of spring break to play three matches in the Sunshine State during that following week.