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Men's Tennis Falls in CC Semifinals at Swarthmore

Men's Tennis Falls in CC Semifinals at Swarthmore

SWARTHMORE, Pa. - In the Centennial Conference Men's Tennis Semifinal match at Swarthmore's Faulkner Courts, top-seeded No. 21 Swarthmore managed to defeat fourth-seeded Haverford, 5-0 to advance to the CC final. With this loss, Haverford's record falls to 12-8, as the Fords saw a seven-match win streak snapped, while Swarthmore advances to the Centennial Conference final with a record of 13-3.

In the doubles competition to open up a seasonable Thursday afternoon, Swarthmore's Michael Melnikov and Utham Koduri defeated Stefan Johnson and James McKenzie 8-3. Andres Fente and Max Pogorelov also won 8-4 against Abhinav Nallapareddy and Kirin Eicher, while Max Lindstrom and Rushil Patel won a tight match against Justin Minerva and Adam Chow, 8-7 (7-5), prevailing in a thrilling tiebreaker to head into singles play with a commanding 3-0 lead in the hands of the Garnet.

Moving on to the singles competition, Lalith Suresh defeated James McKenzie in straight sets, 6-2, 6-1 at the fourth flight in the first match to reach completion, while Michael Melnikov of Swarthmore won 6-4, 6-1 against Stefan Johnson at the top flight to clinch things for the Garnet. Johnson did well to battle against the regionally-ranked Melnikov, showing some great resilience in his 6-4 first game loss before Melnikov cruised in the second set to clinch things for the hosts.

The match between Charley Force and Andreas Wingert at the second flight was left unfinished, after Wingert grabbed the opening set in a battle of CC standouts. The match between Max Lindstrom and Aiden Kim at the third flight was also left unfinished, with Lindstrom up 6-3, 5-1. 

Justin Minerva notched the first set against Utham Koduri at the fifth singles match, while Andres Fente was leading 6-2, 5-3 against Adam Chow at the sixth flight.

Swarthmore now advances to face second-seeded Johns Hopkins on Saturday in the Centennial Conference Championship Match in Swarthmore, as the Blue Jays took down Washington College in the other semifinal action on Saturday. 

The Fords will now await the pending release of Centennial Conference postseason awards, which are expected to be announced within the next week.