MEDFORD – The 18th-ranked Tufts University men's tennis team won its third straight match and its fourth in the last five matches with an 8-1 final over Bates College in NESCAC play at home on Voute Courts Wednesday.
With the victory the Jumbos jumped over .500 to 8-7 overall and evened up at 4-4 in NESCAC. They finish their regular-season and conference schedule at Bowdoin College on Friday.
Bates (5-11, 3-4 NESCAC) lost its fourth straight match. The Bobcats play their regular-season and conference finale at Williams College on Sunday.
Tufts lost 7-2 at Bates last season, but dominated this afternoon. They took all three doubles matches by 8-4 scores with sophomores Boris Sorkin and Carl-Herman Grant at #1, freshman Paris Pentousis with junior Zach Shaff at #2 and junior co-captain Ethan Bershtein with sophomore Niko Hereford at #3 all winning.
Sorkin then did not lose a point in #1 singles against Bates' Josh Quijano. The Bobcats scored their lone point in second singles where Jacob Kauppila was up 6-3, 2-1 on Pentousis before the Jumbo had to retire. However, Tufts quickly earned the necessary points to lock down the team victory as Grant was a 6-2, 6-1 winner in fourth singles.
Tufts won each of the remaining matches for the 8-1 final. Freshman Isaac Gorelik won 6-3, 6-4 in third singles, Hereford added a 6-4, 6-2 final in sixth singles and freshman Jack Moldenhauer completed the singles sweep with a 7-5, 6-3 score on the fifth court.
Today's match should have a positive effect on the Jumbos' chances to earn one of the six NESCAC Tournament berths which will be announced next week.
