FREDERICKSBURG, Va. – The Haverford College men's tennis team found great success during Day 1 of the ITA Southeast Regional on Friday. In doubles, Josh Moskovitz and Kevin Yan advanced into Saturday's Round of 16 action. Moskovitz also advanced to the Round of 16 in singles, capping a perfect 4-0 day for him to start the regional championship.
Beginning the day with a pair of doubles rounds, the duo of Moskovitz and Yan received a bye during the Round of 64 and prevailed in a tiebreak over Johns Hopkins' pairing the following round to solidify their advancement in the championship bracket. After splitting the first 14 games with the Blue Jay opposition, Haverford's top doubles pairing won the tiebreak by a convincing 7-2 score.
Moskovitz and Yan will continue with Round of 16 play tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. against Washington & Lee. They are Haverford's first doubles pairing to make the Round of 16 at the ITA Regional Championships since Kevin Caulfield '13 and Danny Himelstein '13 made it all the way the quarterfinal round during the fall of their senior seasons. Yan and Moskovitz need two more victories on Saturday to make it to the semifinals as they are still in the hunt to be playing on championship Sunday.
George Jiang and Pranav Krishnan joined Haverford's other pairing in the Round of 32 after doubling up their opponents from Muhlenberg in the opening match by an 8-4 score. However, their weekend in doubles was stopped by Christopher Newport's 8-3 win. However, Haverford's doubles success was not limited to the championship draws. In Flight A doubles, Arnav Patodia and Nick Sweeney advanced to the semifinals. They defeated opponents from Stevenson and Hampden-Sydney by respective 8-3 and 8-6 scores. Patodia and Krishnan will be back on court for semifinal doubles against another pairing from Stevenson at 8 a.m. Saturday morning.
Continuing his earlier success, Josh Moskovitz rolled into the Round of 16 singles with a pair of straight-set victories. He started singles play with a 6-0, 6-2 victory against Ursinus and finished his perfect day by dropping just five singles games in total over the two matches. He moved into the Round of 16 with a 6-2, 6-1 win over his opponent from Carnegie Mellon.
Moskovitz is the first Haverford player since Dais Nakayama '18 to make it to the singles Round of 16 since the recently graduated Ford accomplished that feat during the fall of 2014. Moskovitz will face Mary Washington's Michael Fleming at 11:30 a.m. Saturday morning for a spot in the quarterfinals. If the senior co-captain continues his winning ways, he will battle for a spot in the semifinals and advancement to Sunday's final rounds at 3:30 p.m.
Also entering championship singles action for the Fords were George Jiang and Kevin Yan. Both players won opening matches to advance to the Round of 32 before seeing their weekend of singles come to a close. Jiang won 6-3, 6-2 in his Round of 64 match and forced his opponent from Johns Hopkins to play extra games in both the first and second set before falling by a hard-fought 7-6 (4), 7-5 score. Yan defeated Centennial Conference foe Zach Levin of Franklin & Marshall with a dominating 6-0 third set, but was toppled by another Centennial Conference foe from Swarthmore the following round.
In Flight C action, Arnav Patodia dropped just one game during the second set over his opponent from DeSales. He was scheduled to take the court against Muhlenberg's Noah Sellinger for a quarterfinal match at 8:45 p.m. Results from that match were not available as of press time. In their respective Flight A and B singles draws, Pranav Krishnan and Nick Sweeney will look to bounce back from opening round defeats during the consolation rounds on Saturday.
Singles
Josh Moskovitz – Championship Singles
Round of 64: Won vs. Paul Vecchio (Ursinus), 6-0, 6-2
Round of 32: Won vs. Joshua Pinckney (Carnegie Mellon), 6-2, 6-1
Round of 16: vs. Michael Fleming (Mary Washington) (Saturday, 11:30 a.m.)
George Jiang – Championship Singles
Round of 64: Won vs. Matthew Moody (Hampden-Sydney), 6-3, 6-2
Round of 32: Lost vs. Aaron Carey (Johns Hopkins), 7-6 (4), 7-5
Kevin Yan – Championship Singles
Round of 64: Won vs. Zach Levin (Franklin & Marshall), 6-2, 5-7, 6-0
Round of 32: Lost vs. Jiung Jung (Swarthmore), 6-1, 6-3
Pranav Krishnan – Flight A
Round of 16: Lost vs. Kelson Weber (Salisbury), 4-6, 6-4, 6-0
Consolation 1: vs. Thomas Woodcock (Averett) (Saturday, 11 a.m.)
Nick Sweeney – Flight B
Round of 16: Lost vs. Daniel Blonquist (Southern Virginia), 6-1, 4-6, 6-1
Consolation 1: vs. Mitch Brody (Christopher Newport) or Andrew Lai (Dickinson) (Saturday, 11:30 a.m.)
Arnav Patodia – Flight C
Round of 16: Won vs. Jorey Ferraro (DeSales), 6-0, 6-1
Quarterfinals: vs. Noah Sellinger (Muhlenberg) (Friday, 8:45 p.m.)
Doubles
Josh Moskovitz/Kevin Yan – Championship Doubles
Round of 64: Bye
Round of 32: Won vs. Aaron Carey/Eric Yoo (Johns Hopkins), 8-7 (2)
Round of 16: vs. Bobby Neuner/Mitchell Thomas (Washington & Lee) (Saturday, 8 a.m.)
George Jiang/Pranav Krishnan – Championship Doubles
Round of 64: Won vs. Noah Sellinger/Lucas Bueno (Muhlenberg), 8-4
Round of 32: Lost vs. Nick Ruzicka/William Trang (Christopher Newport), 8-3
Arnav Patodia/Nick Sweeney – Flight A
Round of 16: Won vs. Alex Kiblin/Andre Sturniolo (Stevenson), 8-3
Quarterfinals: Won vs. Grayson Burns/Tyler Brice (Hampden-Sydney), 8-6
Semifinals: vs. Braddock Chow/Chris Maderitz (Saturday, 8 a.m.)