HAVERFORD, Pa. - The No. 28 ranked Haverford College men's tennis team (10-5, 5-1 CC) registered seven unanswered tallies after falling behind 2-0 in doubles play, grabbing a 7-2 win over Washington College (9-6, 4-2 CC) on Wednesday afternoon at the Bramall Courts with a sweep of singles play.
Haverford grabbed a marathon victory at number one doubles after falling at number two and number three as Washington College had the early momentum with a 2-0 lead and looked to make a road splash against the ranked hosts. Undaunted, the well-tested doubles pairing of George Jiang and Stefan Johnson looked extremely poised in taking the victory in a tiebreaker by a back-and-forth 14-12 final, finally setting the match on its course for singles play with an emphatic and impressive victory over the Atlantic South region's 11th-ranked doubles pairing of Karl Hoegstedt and Andrew Smith.
When singles began, it was the Fords taking the upper hand from first serve as Johnson then dispatched Koby Bonta at number four to immediately tie the score at 2-2 with his 6-1, 6-2 triumph. Andreas Wingert then got the better of Landon Strober, allowing just three games in his 6-3, 6-0 triumph at the second flight. Danny Loder then breezed past Ryohei Kawai (6-2, 6-2) at number three before James McKenzie tallied the clincher against Brady Burns at number five, prevailing 6-3, 6-1 to assure Haverford's fourth straight win.
With the match decision in hand, Kirin Eicher then outlasted a challenge from Aaradith Ravichandran (7-5, 6-3). The last match to finish on the day was a heavyweight bout between two of the best players in the region as Jiang and Hoegstedt locked horns. Hoegstedt, the No. 10 player in the latest Atlantic South rankings, dropped some early games as Jiang tussled for the upper hand.
Eventually, the first set went to a tiebreak, with Jiang prevailing 7-4 in the extra frames. Hoegstedt took advantage of Jiang's all-out effort in the first set to breeze to a 6-0 win in the second. Thankfully for Jiang, a third-set superbreaker was another chance to show his mettle as Haverford's senior leader prevailed 10-7 for Haverford's seventh tally on the day.
The Fords improve to 25-23 all-time against the Shoremen, including a 12-11 mark at home. Haverford has won nine straight in the all-time series.
Men's Tennis now takes a quick excursion from Centennial Conference play, doing battle with No. 40 Christopher Newport on a neutral court at Goucher College in Baltimore on Saturday. The Fords will then wrap up CC regular season play with trips to Muhlenberg and Gettysburg next week.