SOMERVILLE, MA (April 25, 2023) -- The No. 2 Tufts University men's tennis team finished the 2023 regular season undefeated Tuesday afternoon, knocking off No. 37 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 7-2 in play from the South Courts.
The victory for Tufts was its 13th over a Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) ranked opponent, as the Jumbos once again controlled doubles to take control of the match. Dating back to the beginning of April, the Jumbos (19-0) have lost only three doubles matches of the possible 33 played, while winning 23 of the last 24. On the season, Tufts is 47-10 in doubles action, winning a whopping 82.5 percent in the pairs' competition.
At No. 1 doubles,
Derin Acaroglu and
Vuk Vuksanovic, the region's top doubles' pair, defeated MIT's Kailas Kahler and Daniel Papacica 8-4.
Rishabh Sharda and
Josh Belandres also picked up their 15th win of the season, moving to 15-2 with an 8-5 win at No. 2 doubles. At the third doubles' position,
Jack Moldenhauer and
Alex Ganchev completed the sweep with an 8-6 win to improve to 14-3 in 2023.
The Jumbos would keep the momentum going into the individual action, winning four of the six flight. At No. 1 singles, Vuksanovic evened his singles' mark to 7-7 on the season with a 6-3, 6-1 straight set victory. Acaroglu moved up to No. 3 on the day and stayed unbeaten on the year, upping his record to 13-0 as he won the super-tiebreaker 13-11 to pick up a 7-5, 2-6, 1-0 (13-11) win.
Javier Gonzalez moved his win total on the year into double digits with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Ryan Xiao, and
Lachie Macintosh won his fourth straight match with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Richter Jordaan at No. 6.
MIT picked up wins at No. 2 and No. 5 singles, as Papacica defeated Ganchev 7-6, 6-1 at the No. 2 spot. Benji Grossman topped Belandres 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 at No. 5.
The Jumbos will now focus their attention on the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Tournament this upcoming weekend, taking on the eighth-seeded Cardinals of Wesleyan University Friday afternoon at 1 p.m. in the quarterfinals at Williams College in Williamstown, MA.
--JUMBOS--
