LAKELAND, Fla. - The Haverford College men's tennis team (4-3) clinched its third consecutive victory on Thursday at Florida Southern College, achieving a thrilling 4-3 win over Division I Colgate (3-10). This victory marked the program's first triumph over a Division I opponent since an 8-1 victory against LaSalle in the 2016 season, making it a significant milestone on the spring break trip.
In the Division I scoring format, Haverford initially conceded the doubles point to the Raiders. The duo of Aidan Lee and Josh Israel secured a 6-3 victory over James McKenzie and Kirin Eicher at the top flight. However, Haverford swiftly equalized the score to 1-1 with Adam Chow and Justin Minerva defeating John Fazil and Aidan Chung by a 6-4 margin. Nonetheless, Colgate managed to take the early lead with a 6-4 win by Parker McGowan and Jerome Falcon over the pairing of Marko Arboleda and Aiden Kim, putting Colgate ahead 1-0 as the teams moved into singles play.
Haverford faced a setback to begin singles action, as Falcone defeated Chait Krishna with a convincing 6-1, 6-1 score, extending Colgate's lead to 2-0. However, Haverford quickly responded with Arboleda securing a match win at the top flight, overcoming Israel with a score of 6-0, 6-2. Colgate then extended their lead to 3-1 as Aidan Lee defeated Justin Minerva (6-2, 6-2) at the third flight. Despite that deficit, the Fords fought back resiliently.
Niki Lavu demonstrated dominance by conceding only one game to Mikey Weitz, clinching a commanding 6-0, 6-1 triumph at the fifth flight, bringing the Fords back within one point. Aiden Kim then displayed his tenacity by outlasting Ben Graham at the second flight (6-1, 7-5), leveling the score at 3-3 and setting the stage for an epic conclusion with James McKenzie at number six.
McKenzie delivered an extraordinary performance against Tejas Gupta, particularly in a marathon first set that culminated in a tiebreaker. With a hard-fought 10-8 victory in that breaker, McKenzie secured a 7-6 win in the first set. He continued his momentum into the second set, clinching a 6-3 win and ultimately sealing the victory for the Fords.
Following this remarkable win, Haverford now prepares to return to action on Friday, concluding their spring break stint with an 11 a.m. match against Trinity (Conn.) at the USTA National Campus. Live video and live scoring are available via the USTA National Campus website.