LEWISTON, ME (March 4, 2023) - The fourth-ranked Tufts University men's tennis team opened its spring schedule with a 6-3 NESCAC victory at Bates College on Saturday.
The match was played indoors. The Jumbos (1-0) took two out of three in doubles and then won the first three singles matches to clinch the team victory. Bates, who has been on its spring trip and played three matches in late February, fell to 1-4 overall.
The Jumbos took two out of three in doubles to begin the day. They had an 8-2 victory by the senior second pair of
Rishabh Sharda and
Josh Belandres against the Bates duo of Matthew Danielson and Leo Kupferman. An 8-4 victory at #3 by fifth-year
Jack Moldenhauer with freshman
Alex Ganchev followed for the Jumbos. The third pair won four of the final five games against Bates' Teddy Koide and Nick Forester to pull away. Tufts' top duo of sophomores
Vuk Vuksanovic and
Derin Acaroglu, ranked second nationally, was upset by Bates' Cameron Davis-Kania and Alexander Gujarathi 8-6. The Jumbos had led the match 5-4.
Tufts closed within the team victory early in singles as Belandres and Acaroglu were the first two to finish. Belandres won his #5 match 6-1, 6-3 versus Forester and Acaroglu had a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Koide in fourth singles. The visitors then clinched the match with Vuksanovic's 6-2, 7-5 win on the second singles court against Gujarathi. He broke out of a 5-5 second-set tie to win.
Sharda would earn the Jumbos' sixth win, topping Davis-Kania 6-4, 6-2 in first singles play. Bates spoiled the spring singles debuts of Jumbo freshmen Ganchev and
Javier Gonzalez. The #3 singles match went to a super tie-breaker in the third set. Ganchev took a lead with a 6-3 win in the first, but Kupferman rallied to win the match with 6-4 and 10-4 scores in the next two sets. At sixth singles, Danielson got past Gonzalez by 6-3 and 6-2 scores.
Tufts will host a pair of national top 10 NESCAC teams next weekend with #3 Middlebury coming in on Saturday and #6 Williams on Sunday.
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--JUMBOS--
