ORLANDO, Fla. – The Haverford College men's tennis team gave No. 39 Millsaps (9-4) all it could handle on Thursday afternoon. However, the Majors pulled out a tiebreak in doubles and a pair of 10-point tiebreaks in singles to squeeze out a 6-3 win over the Fords (2-2).
Haverford did take one of the three doubles points as the No. 3 pairing of Ishaan Prinz and Rob Kresch continued its impressive streak as of late with a convincing 8-3 victory. That win gave the Fords' third doubles team its third straight victory together.
The Fords' No. 2 pairing of Dais Nakayama and Kevin Yan came into the day with a three-match winning streak. However, the Majors' middle team won a 7-5 tiebreak after the two sides split the first 16 games. That setback was the first of the year for the pairing of Nakayama and Yan. Millsaps had an 8-3 win of their own in doubles, coming out victorious by that margin in the No. 1 match up.
Josh Moskovitz and David Kong won the first and sixth singles matches for the Fords. Kong conceded the least amount of games of any player from either side in singles play. Just two second set games were all he gave up after a 6-0 first set win on the way to running his record to a perfect 8-0 since the fall season. Moskovitz bounced back from a tough opening set to force a 10-point tiebreak with a 6-2 victory in the second. The back-and-forth No. 1 singles match was ultimately taken by Moskovitz, 11-9 in the tiebreak. Moskovitz was trailing 9-4 in the tiebreak before the junior rolled off seven straight points for the victory. The co-captain has now won three straight matches at the top of the lineup for the Fords.
The Majors came away with the other two 10-point tiebreak matches to help them secure the 6-3 team decision. Dais Nakayama got the jump on his opponent with a 6-4 win in the opening set at No. 4 singles. Nevertheless, he came up just short in a 10-8 tiebreak. Pranav Krishnan also had a set up on his opponent at No. 5 singles before ultimately coming out on the wrong side of a 10-5 tiebreak. Kevin Yan and Ishaan Prinz were also right in their matches at Nos. 2 and 3 singles, winning four and seven games respectively.
Men's tennis will have Friday off from competition before concluding its schedule in the Sunshine State on Saturday against Wooster. That match is scheduled to get underway at 3:30 p.m.