SWARTHMORE, Pa. - The No. 38 Haverford College Men's Tennis (8-6, 3-1 CC) team fell to No. 10 Swarthmore (14-1, 4-0 CC), on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon at the Faulkner Tennis Courts on the campus of Swarthmore College.
The Garnet put the first point on the scoreboard in doubles play, as the tandem of Purushotham Koduri and Michael Melnikov defeated Marko Arboleda and Stefan Johnson 8-2, in just under 30 minutes. On court two, the team of Andres Fente and Rushil Patel prevailed over James McKenzie and Kirin Eicher 8-3, to take a 2-0 lead. In the third flight, Swarthmore's duo of Max Lindstrom and Aadhi Raja dispelled Adam Chow and Justin Minvera 8-5, to boost the Garnet's lead to 3-0, heading into singles play.
Swarthmore kept up their strong form on the day in singles play, as Kevin Jiang defeated Minerva in flight three 6-2, 6-3, adding a fourth point to the host's lead. Over on court one, Melnikov picked up his second win of the day, vanquishing Arboleda 6-3, 7-5, to secure the clinching fifth point for the Garnet.
In the fourth flight, Patel took down McKenzie 6-3, 6-3, before Lindstrom turned away Aiden Kim 6-2, 6-2, as Swarthmore grabbed two more points to lead 7-0.
Rishi Verma claimed a three set-victory over Niki Lavu 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 in flight five, before Haverford tacked on the final point of the day. In flight six, Chow dropped the first set to Lalith Suresh 6-4, before rallying back to take set two 7-5.
A super tiebreaker then ensued, as Chow got the better of Suresh 10-7. The 4-6, 7-5, 1-0 (10-7 super tiebreaker) win for Chow gave the Scarlet and Black their first and only individual match win of the day, but it was too little too late for the Fords, as the Garnet claimed a 8-1 victory.
Next up for the Fords, is another Centennial Conference home match on Bettye Marshall and Norman B. Bramall Tennis Courts on Saturday, April 14, as No. 23 Johns Hopkins pays a visit to the 'Ford at 2 p.m.
Before the match, Adam Chow and Kirin Ecicher will honor a staff/faculty member of their choice during the annual staff/faculty appreciation ceremony at 12:45.