EDGEWATER, N.J. - Playing on back-to-back days to begin the 2023 dual match season, the No. 29 Haverford College Men's Tennis team (1-1) was upended by host Stevens (2-1) indoors at the Edgewater Tennis Center, falling to the Ducks by a 6-3 final score.
Beginning with doubles, Haverford started with a 1-0 lead thanks to a relatively straightforward win from the pairing of Max Beckwith and James McKenzie at the third flight. The pair won for the second consecutive day, this time taking an 8-3 win over Andrew He and Timothy Lau to put the first tally of the afternoon on Haverford's side of the ledger.
The next match to finish featured Justin Minerva and Aiden Kim, as that pairing fell to Aashi Kulakarni and Vivek Harinarayan by an 8-1 final at the second flight. Haverford was able to take the doubles portion by a 2-1 decision as the top-flight pairing of Stefan Johnson and Adam Chow prevailed over Olof Persson and Troy Zhang by an 8-6 final.
With the 2-1 lead in hand heading into singles play, Haverford saw Stevens retake the lead with a pair of straight-set singles wins in succession. Max-William Kanz got past Danny Loder (6-2, 6-0) at No. 4 and Aashi Kulakarni gave the Ducks the lead with his win over Stefan Johnson at the second flight (6-4, 6-1). Haverford rallied to tie the match at 3-3 with James McKenzie taking victory at the fifth flight (6-4, 6-4) over Timothy Lau (6-4, 6-4).
Stevens' Andrew He was a winner of Aiden Kim at the third flight to put the Ducks on the brink of the clinch, as that match went the full three sets as He grabbed a 6-1 win in the first frame before Kim rallied back with a 6-4 win of his own to force the decisive third. The frame finished 6-4 in favor of Kim to put Stevens up 4-3 in the overall match.
Another three-set thriller clinched the match for the hosts, as Vivek Harinarayan and Andreas Wingert did battle. Wingert was a 6-3 winner in the first game at the top flight, but Harinarayan battled back to rattle off consecutive 6-3 wins of his own to ensure Stevens the upset victory.
The sixth match to finish was at the sixth flight, with Matt Luzzi also needing three sets to dispatch Adam Chow. Luzzi won the first game 6-4 before Chow battled back to force a decisive set. In that frame, Luzzi was able to prevail 6-3 to reflect the overall match scoreline of 6-3.
Haverford will now regroup and return to action during the annual Spring Break Trip, as the next men's tennis contest is slated for Monday, March 6. The Fords will take on No. 23 Carnegie Mellon in a nationally ranked battle and will also battle with Covenant to begin action in the Orlando area.