ANNAPOLIS, Md. – After going down 2-1 in doubles play, the #3-ranked Tufts University men's tennis team came back to earn a 5-3 victory over #14-ranked North Carolina Wesleyan University to win the Jumbos' first-ever NCAA Championship Regional title on Sunday.
With the victory, the Jumbos move to 19-2 overall and advance to the NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Championship Quarterfinals in Orlando, Florida, where they will face off against fifth-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Monday, May 23.
Today's match was played indoors at at Brigade Sports Complex on the campus of the U.S. Naval Academy. Tufts' duo of Josh Belandres and Rishabh Sharda got the team's lone doubles win in the #1 match, defeating NC Wesleyan's Jhonny Acosta and Diego Segovia 8-4. Isaac Gorelik and Paris Pentousis fought until the end for the Jumbos in the second doubles spot, but fell short to Roberto Puig and Max Robinson 8-7 (2). In the #3 doubles match, NC Wesleyan's John Falke and Juan Vallejo earned an 8-5 win over Derin Acaroglu and Niko Hereford to give the Battling Bishops a lead.
Singles play saw four different matches get taken into third sets, with Tufts winning three of them. However, Sharda posted a decisive 6-1, 6-0 victory against Vallejo for Tufts in the #2 match to get the comeback started. Freshman Vuk Vuksanovic was next off after he outlasted Falke in the #3 match 6-1, 2-6, 7-6 (1) to give the Jumbos a 3-2 lead. However, NC Wesleyan's Luca Knese won the #5 battle with Acaroglu 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-4 to even things up again.
It would be Tufts' veteran leaders Gorelik and Pentousis who would finish off the win. Gorelik defeated Acosta 6-2, 6-7 (6), 6-4 in the #1 match, then Pentousis earned the clinching victory in a marathon 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (4) victory over Puig in fourth singles.
Belandres' singles match with Segovia in the #6 spot went unfinished with a score of 6-4, 5-5 in favor of Belandres.
Head coach Karl Gregor's Jumbo team moves on to the national quarterfinals in their first NCAA berth since 2004.
Written by Tim O'Brien, Athletic Communications Intern
