Men's Tennis Eliminated from NESCAC's by Wesleyan, 5-3

Recap courtesy of Bates College

Rohan Gupte's singles win had given Tufts a 3-2 lead

LEWISTON, ME - Fourth-seeded Wesleyan University defeated No. 5 seed Tufts University 5-3 Friday in the first round of the 2016 NESCAC Men's Tennis Championship, the Cardinals' first-ever victory in the tournament since it went to a dual-match format in 2006.

The Cardinals (13-5) won their eighth straight match and will face top-seeded Middlebury (14-2) in the second round Saturday at 2 pm.

Tufts seized a 2-1 lead in doubles play. Nick Cary and Rohan Gupte defeated Zacko Brint and Greg Lyon 8-5 at first doubles, and Jay Glickman and Rob Jacobson won 8-5 over Michael Liu and Steven Chen at second doubles. The Cardinals salvaged a point with Joachim Samson and Sam Rudovsky's 8-4 victory over Griffin Brockman and Zain Ali at third doubles.

Wesleyan evened the match with the first singles win of the day, as Steven Chen defeated Glickman 6-3, 6-4. Tufts' Gupte defeated Liu 6-2, 6-2 to return the lead to the Jumbos at 3-2, but the Cardinals pulled ahead as Tiago Eusebio finished off Ali 6-2, 6-4 at third singles and Samson beat Jacobson 6-2, 6-3 at fourth singles.

Jake Roberts clinched the victory for the Cardinals at sixth singles, defeating Danny Coran 6-3, 6-4.

Wesleyan defeated Tufts 8-1 in the teams' regular-season meeting, April 9 at Wesleyan.

The Jumbos (13-7) will hope for a potential at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament, which will be announced Monday at noon.

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