HAVERFORD, Pa. - The Haverford College men's tennis team (1-0), the No. 29 ranked team in the nation, began the spring dual match season with a strong performance indoors at the Alumni Field House, taking down visiting NYU (1-1) by a 7-2 final in a rare Friday night battle under the lights.
In doubles play, Haverford earned its first point of the spring season as the pairing of James McKenzie and Max Beckwith outlasted Andy Watterson and Joseph He by an 8-6 final at the third flight. The second tally of the night then came as the top flight pairing of Adam Chow and Stefan Johnson outlasted Alex Yang and Zachary Freier. The matchup was a back-and-forth affair that required a tiebreaker as Chow and Johnson prevailed in the extra frame to put Haverford up 2-0 early. NYU grabbed the third doubles point with Alex Lee and Boren Zheng, a pair of first years, guiding past Justin Minerva and Aiden Kim to put a much-needed tally into the Violets column.
As action moved into singles, Johnson posted a strong start to his campaign with a straightforward 6-2, 6-2 takedown of Freier at number two The next match to hit the courts saw Kim rebound from his doubles loss to prevail over Zheng in a battle of rookies (6-4, 6-1) at the third flight. With a 4-1 lead in hand, Haverford just needed one more match victory to clinch the overall win. Joseph He fended off Danny Loder at the fourth flight, taking a 6-0 blanking in the first set before Loder responded for a 6-2 win to force a superbreaker. He was a 10-5 winner in the extra frame to deny Loder the clinch.
Wingert was able to prevail at the top flight to deliver the match for the Fords, as he turned around a 4-6 loss in the first set to win 6-0 and then prevail in the superbreaker by a 10-6 final. The Fords got a sixth tally as McKenzie was victorious over Rumaish Khastgir (6-0, 7-5), at the fifth flight. In the last match of the night to reach conclusion, shortly before 11 p.m, Chow took a superbreaker from Andy Watterson by a 10-8 after the two competitors split the first two sets (6-4 and 3-6).
Friday night was the second consecutive victory for Haverford in the all-time series with the Violets, as Haverford previously posted a 5-4 decision in March of 2019. Prior to the 2019 matchup, the last Fords win in the series was in 1923.
Haverford now faces a quick turnaround, facing off with Stevens tomorrow in the final matchup before heading out on the Spring Break trip beginning March 6. The matchup will be held indoors at the Edgewater Tennis Club in Edgewater, N.J. with an approximate start time of 4 p.m.