HAVERFORD, Pa. - The Haverford College men's tennis team defeated Ursinus with a sweeping 9-0 victory at Bramall Courts on Tuesday afternoon to clinch a spot in the Centennial Conference playoffs. Haverford will be making its 11th consecutive postseason appearance and 15th trip overall to the conference tournament, in a tournament that has only been held on 16 occasions.
With this win, Haverford improved to 8-7 on the season, and 4-3 in the Centennial Conference. Ursinus fell to 12-6 on the season, and 2-5 in the conference. Haverford claimed an impressive victory in the doubles competition, winning all three matches to take a 3-0 lead heading into the singles matches.
The duo of Stefan Johnson and James McKenzie, a pair that has teamed up for four doubles wins this season, started the day off strong for Haverford in the first doubles match, dominating their opponents Lars Jespersen and Will Oberholtzer with an 8-0 win.
Next up, Kirin Eicher and Abhinav Nallapareddy also secured a decisive 8-1 victory against Noah Mandel and Andrei Bogdan, their third win as a pairing this season. Justin Minerva and Adam Chow completed the doubles sweep with a comfortable 8-2 win against the pairing of Darby Rogers and Ethan Yu from Ursinus.
Moving on to the singles matches, Chow delivered a commanding performance against Bogdan with a 6-0, 6-0 win at the fifth flight to set the tone early. Nallapareddy continued the momentum with a convincing 6-1, 6-1 win against Mandel, clinching the victory for the hosts.
Aiden Kim won the second flight match with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Oberholtzer. In the first flight match, Andreas Wingert defeated Jespersen with a comfortable 6-2, 6-1 win. Reigning Centennial Conference Tennis Athlete of the Week James McKenzie claimed a hard-fought 7-5, 6-1 win over Yu at the third flight.
The final match of the day was a thrilling contest between Minerva and Rogers. After dropping the first set, Minerva rallied back to secure a 1-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-2) win at the fourth flight after taking the third-set superbreaker.
The Fords now take a brief excursion into non-conference play, as men's tennis will host Goucher College on Thursday, April 20. The match is slated to begin at 4:30 p.m.