Men's Tennis Topped by Swarthmore, 6-3

George Jiang
George Jiang

SWARTHMORE, Pa. – The Haverford College men's tennis team dropped a 6-3 decision on the road to rival Swarthmore. The Fords (11-7, 6-2 CC) won No. 1 doubles, and added wins in singles from George Jiang and Pranav Krishnan, but it was not enough against the No. 31 Garnet (11-10, 7-1 CC) as those teams came into the day battling for second place in the conference standings.

Haverford's win in doubles came from the No. 1 pairing of Josh Moskovitz and Kevin Yan as those two co-captains continued to shine for the Fords. That latest victory improves their record together to 12-9 this season, including a 6-1 mark against Centennial Conference foes. Today's result came in a tiebreak by a 9-7 score after evenly splitting the first 14 games. Moskovitz and Yan's latest win came over the No. 13 doubles team in the Atlantic South Region. Haverford's top pairing now has two regionally-ranked victories this spring as it defeated the No. 17 duo in the region from Southern Virginia just two weekends ago.

Despite the thrilling victory at the top of the order, Swarthmore was able to take a 2-1 lead after doubles following 8-2 victories in the second and third flights. Moving into singles, the Garnet clinched the team result with wins at No. 1, No. 5, and No. 6. In a matchup of regionally-ranked opponents in the top singles match, it was Swarthmore's No. 11-ranked Jiung Jung who emerged with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Josh Moskovitz who is ranked No. 13 in the Atlantic South Region. That defeat snapped what was a six-match winning streak for Moskovitz entering into Wednesday's match.

The Fords did get victories from George Jiang and Pranav Krishnan in the middle of the lineup. Jiang won a 7-5, 7-6 match at No. 3 singles and tied with Moskovitz for the team lead with 16 victories in singles. The Fords' phenomenal first-year is now 5-2 in Centennial Conference play. Krishnan won a 7-6 (3) tiebreak to open his match at No. 4 singles before a 6-1 win during the second set. Krishnan now has 11 wins in singles during his sophomore campaign and holds a 6-1 record against conference foes. Kevin Yan looked to be potentially working on the Fords' fourth point of the evening, but a hard-fought second set tiebreak denied him a 10-point tiebreak opportunity in the second spot of the lineup.

With tonight's win for Swarthmore, the Garnet and Fords are now tied at seven-all in the Hood Trophy standings with just four sports remaining: men's and women's lacrosse and men's and women's outdoor track & field.

Men's tennis will now wrap up the regular season this Saturday with a doubleheader against Gettysburg (11 a.m.) and Scranton (3 p.m.). Haverford has already clinched a spot in next week's Centennial Conference Tournament and appears poised for a second chance at Swarthmore as those two teams remain in second and third in the conference standings.