LANCASTER, Pa. – The Centennial Conference is now down to three undefeated teams in men's tennis after Haverford (6-5, 3-0 CC) knocked Franklin & Marshall from the ranks of the conference unbeatens Saturday with a 7-2 victory against the Diplomats (4-5, 2-1 CC). F&M entered the day ranked No. 20 in the Atlantic South Region while the Fords were No. 12 overall as a team.
Doubles once again helped to set the tone of the match for the Fords as Haverford is now 6-3 combined in CC doubles matches. Haverford's No. 1 pairing of Josh Moskovitz and Kevin Yan, along with its No. 2 team of Pranav Krishnan and George Jiang, came away with 8-5 victories. Moskovitz and Yan remained unbeaten in conference play with the win and have eight victories together this year. The Krishnan/Jiang pairing is 10-6 overall with a 2-1 conference mark.
Only a tiebreak setback at No. 3 doubles denied Haverford a sweep of doubles action. Nick Sweeney and Arnav Patodia evenly split the first 14 games with their opponents before a hard-fought 10-8 tiebreak went to the hosts. Nevertheless, Haverford quickly made that up by winning five of the six singles matches.
Josh Moskovitz, Kevin Yan, and George Jiang wrapped up the team result with straight set victories at the Nos. 1-3 positions. Moskovitz picked up his team-leading 12th victory of the year as he needed a tiebreak win in the first, 7-6 (5), before cruising to a 6-1 victory in the second. Yan stayed unbeaten in Centennial Conference singles with back-to-back 6-2 sets and now boasts an 8-3 record this spring with 11 victories overall. Jiang sealed the Fords' team win with a 6-1, 7-5 victory at No.3 singles. The first-year also has 11 wins overall to go with his 2-1 mark in conference play.
Pranav Krishnan and Arnav Patodia kept pace with Yan and remained undefeated in Centennial Conference singles action as they both came out victorious in 10-point tiebreaks. Playing No. 4, Krishnan dropped a second set tiebreak but rallied back with an 11-9 ultimate tiebreak win to record his eighth singles victory of the year. Patodia also has eight singles wins on the year after his win at No. 6. Patodia fell in a first set tiebreak before a dominant 6-1 second set to force the decisive tiebreak. With momentum on his side, Patodia won 10 of the 12 points in that tiebreak. F&M's only win in singles came at No. 5 where Nick Sweeney had the opening set knotted at five-all before his opponent both broke and held serve. The Diplomat was victorious by a 6-2 score during the second set.
Looking to keep its three-match Centennial Conference winning streak rolling, men's tennis will head out on the road this Wednesday for a 4 p.m. match at Muhlenberg. The Fords will return home next Saturday to take on Southern Virginia (10 a.m.) and McDaniel (1 p.m.) in doubleheader action.