MIDDLETOWN, Conn. - The Tufts University men's tennis team opened its post-season with a 5-1 victory over Colby College in the quarterfinals of the NESCAC Tournament on Friday morning. The match, which was held at at Weselayn University, was played to decision which all of the conference championship matches will be. Tufts is the #2 seed and Colby was 7th.
The Jumbos (16-1), who won their 15th straight match, advance to Saturday's semifinals at 9 am. Their opponent is not yet known. Colby's season ended with an 8-9 record.
Tufts started by taking doubles 2-1. After the first two matches were split, the Jumbo #1 duo of Josh Belandres and Rishabh Sharda battled back from 5-4 and 6-5 deficits to win 8-6. Tufts' Isaac Gorelik and Paris Pentousis (pictured) won the #2 match 8-4, but Colby's third pair of Jan Wenger and James Bogdanovic earned an 8-6 victory to even the team score at 1-1. Tufts' top duo gave the Jumbos an advantage heading into singles.
The Jumbos would dominate singles. Gorelik whipped through a 6-1, 6-2 win in #1 singles which gave Tufts a 3-1 lead. Tufts then clinched the win as Pentousis at #4 and freshman Derin Acaroglu at #5 had similiar victories where they each gave up just five games to lock down the Jumbos' 5-1 victory.
At the time of the fifth Tufts win, Sharda was leading 6-4, 4-1 at #2, Vuk Vuksanovic was up 7-6, 2-1 on the third singles court and Belandres held a 6-1, 2-1 advantage in sixth singles.
Tufts was the NESCAC Runner-up in 2021 when the championship was modified to feature the top teams from East and West Divisions squaring off in a single championship match due to COVID protocols. So with today's decision the Jumbos earn their first-ever NESCAC semifinal appearance. They will play #3 seed Williams College at 9 am.
