SWARTHMORE, Pa. – The Haverford College men's tennis team was defeated by No. 19 Swarthmore, 7-2, on Tuesday evening. The Fords (10-6, 6-2 CC) got two wins from Kevin Yan as he was victorious at No. 2 singles and teamed up with Dais Nakayama for a victory at No. 2 doubles.
Playing No. 2 doubles, the pairing of Nakayama and Yan came through with an 8-6 victory. That duo is now 8-4 in the middle doubles match this spring with a 5-1 record against Centennial Conference competition. Swarthmore took the first and third doubles matches to hold a 2-1 advantage heading into singles play.
In securing his singles victory, Kevin Yan started out with a 6-0 blanking of his opponent during the first set. Swarthmore's No. 2 player rallied back with a second set tiebreak victory, but Yan emerged via an 11-9 score during the 10-point tiebreak to claim the Fords' second team point. Yan is now 8-4 in singles matches this spring, holding a 5-1 record against conference foes.
Haverford was in a number of other singles matches before being edged out in the final games of those respective matches. Dais Nakayama nearly became the second half of Haverford's doubles pairing to carry the winning momentum into singles. He split a pair of 7-5 sets before coming up just short in a 10-point tiebreak. David Kong lost a pair of hard-fought sets by 7-6 (5) and 7-5 scores, while Ishaan Prinz was denied his chance at 10-point tiebreak after being eclipsed during a second set tiebreak.
Josh Moskovitz matched wits with the No. 29 ranked player in the entire country during the No. 1 singles match. However, the junior co-captain took his first Centennial Conference singles defeat of the season on Tuesday evening. Pranav Krishnan also had a tight second set at No. 6 singles before falling by a 6-4 score.
Men's tennis is now officially locked into the No. 3 seed for the Centennial Conference Tournament, but will finish the regular season this Saturday with a 1 p.m. match at Gettysburg. The Fords' semifinal opponent for the conference playoffs will be determined on Saturday when Swarthmore and Johns Hopkins meet.