ORLANDO - The Tufts University men's tennis team defeated Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 5-3 on Monday afternoon to advance to the NCAA Championship Final Four.
Head coach Karl Gregor's third-ranked Jumbos (20-2) will now play #1 in the nation University of Chicago in the national semifinals on Tuesday at 10 am.
Today, the Jumbos trailed 2-1 after doubles before running off four straight singles victories to take the 5-3 win. Post-season matches are played to decision.
A turning point in the close match came when Claremont-M-S #1 player Robert Liu had to retire in his contest against Jumbo Isaac Gorelik. Tufts' Gorelik was leading the match 4-6, 6-4, 3-1, but the the decision was far fom final at that point. The win gave Tufts a 4-2 advantage.
A few minutes later, the Stags' Christopher Li won the #5 singles match against Tufts' Derin Acaroglu 6-4, 6-4 to close the margin to 4-3. However, Jumbo senior Paris Pentousis finished off a 7-5, 7-5 victory against Jack Katzman in fourth singles to clinch the win.
In the lone unfinished match, Tufts' Vuk Vuksanovic was leading Matthew Robinson 3-6, 6-3, 5-4 in a close third singles match.
Doubles had gone in favor of the Stags. In the #1 match, Philip Martin and Robinson won 8-4. Jumbos Gorelik and Pentousis scored an 8-5 victory in the second doubles contest. Nathan Arimilli with Katzman were the winners of the third doubles match in a tie-breaker 8-7.
Tufts junior Rishabh Sharda got singles started strongly with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Martin at #2 to even the match at 2-2. Playing sixth singles, junior Josh Belandres then gave Tufts its first lead (3-2) with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Michael Hao. The Jumbos would not lose a singles match on their way to earning a spot in the Final Four.
"Our team has made our fitness a priority all year long, and I feel that it really paid off today," Pentousis said. "It's a great feeling looking across at all the singles spots and knowing that we have put in the extra work and have total confidence in each other. We are very excited for the rest of the tournament."
The Jumbos were playing in the "Elite 8" for the first time in program history. They are in the midst of their seventh NCAA Tournament appearance, but first since 2004.
Claremont-M-S ended its season with a 27-7 record.
