BALTIMORE - The 38th-ranked and third-seeded Haverford College men's tennis team (10-8) was defeated by No. 14 and second-seeded Johns Hopkins (14-5) in the Centennial Conference Semifinals at the Hopkins Tennis Courts on a sunshine-filled Friday afternoon.
Action began at Johns Hopkins with doubles, as Haverford's three pairings were all defeated by identical 8-3 finals. Chakor Rajendra and Hanyu Liu then outlasted Justin Minerva and Adam Chow, 8-3 at the third flight. Daniel Ardila and Marco Arzar were able to defeat James McKenzie and Kirin Eicher by an 8-3 tally. At the top flight, Allen Gong and Pranav Gadiraju got past Stefan Johnson and Marko Arboleda to send things into singles play with the hosts in command early, up 3-0.
When singles began, Johns Hopkins moved onto the brink of a clinch quickly with Gong delivering a 6-0, 6-0 decision over McKenzie for the Blue Jays' fourth point of the afternoon.
Undaunted, Haverford rattled off a pair of big wins from Niki Lavu at the sixth flight, as he glided past Gadiraju 6-3, 6-3 before Adam Chow also took down Azar by a 6-3, 6-3 final, pulling the Fords within two at 4-2, taking some of the early momentum back from the Hopkins side.
At the third flight, Hanyu Liu took the first set, 6-0, and was locked in a tough battle with Johnson before prevailing 6-4 to clinch the match and a spot in the Centennial Conference final for the host Blue Jays.
When the match reached completion, there were two matches still on court as Aiden Kim was battling with Rajendra at the second flight, with a 4-3 lead in the second set, while Arboleda was trailing Ardila at the top flight when the match was completed.
Johns Hopkins now advances to face top-seeded Swarthmore on Sunday in the Centennial Conference Championship Match in Swarthmore (1 p.m.) as the Garnet took down Franklin & Marshall in the other semifinal action on Friday.
The 2024 Haverford men's tennis dual match season has now ended. The Fords will now keep their eyes on next week's selections to the NCAA Championships, as Marko Arboleda figures to have a strong shot at representing the Fords at the NCAA Championships in Saint Louis, as he entered the afternoon as the second-ranked singles player in Region III behind only Michael Melnikov of Swarthmore.