BALTIMORE—No. 30 Swarthmore College Men's Tennis duked it out with the No. 24 Johns Hopkins University Blue Jays on Sunday afternoon for the Centennial Conference Championship. The Garnet were looking for their first ever conference title, but finished in second in the league after losing 5-1.
Sunday's match was closer than the 5-1 score indicates. Swarthmore's win came in second doubles as freshman Noah Criss and sophomore Jiung Jung earned an 8-6 victory. In the top doubles flight, John Lathrop and Thibault Vernier, the 12th-ranked doubles pairing in the region, fell 8-6 to the third-ranked doubles duo. Third doubles proved to be the most closely contested match of the day. Evan Han and Simon Vernier played to a 7-7 tie to force a tie-breaker game; the Garnet duo fell 7-1 in the tie-breaking game.
Jung battled in top singles as he looked for his second win of the day, but fell 6-4, 6-4. Lathrop dropped second singles 6-2, 6-1, and Thibault Vernier's third singles match went 6-1, 6-4 in Hopkins' favor.
The Garnet wrap up the 2019 campaign with a 13-12 record under first-year head coach Jason Box; Swarthmore went 8-1 in the Centennial regular season.
