ORLANDO, FL (May 15, 2023) -- First-year
Alex Ganchev rallied from down 5-3 in the second set to win the frame 7-5, securing a straight set win along with the clinching fifth point as the No. 2 Tufts University men's tennis team erased a 3-1 deficit to No. 6 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps to earn a 5-4 win in the NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Tournament semifinals at the United States Tennis Association (USTA) National Campus Monday afternoon.
The Jumbos (22-1) will appear in the national title match for the first time in program history on Tuesday at 6 p.m., taking on No. 1 Case Western Reserve University after the Spartans defeated No. 3 Middlebury College 5-4 Monday afternoon in the other semifinal. Live coverage of Tuesday evening's final will be available at gotuftsjumbos.com, with live video of the match coming on NCAA.com.
"It's almost indescribable, I tried not to think about it at all and when it happened it was just elation, joy...it's such a great group of guys to lead and I can't be more proud of what they did today," said Tufts head coach
Karl Gregor.
The Jumbos were in their second straight national semifinal, as Tufts was knocked off 5-4 to eventual national champion University of Chicago in Final Four. Gregor noted in a postmatch interview that that experience helped Monday. "Being here last year was huge, they really saw what it takes. It's really takes grit, determination, and fighting every point and they were more prepared. They knew what they had in front of them."
CMS (22-5) got on the board first at No. 3 doubles as Warren Pham and Advik Mareedu defeated Ganchev and
Jack Moldenhauer 8-5, but
Rishabh Sharda and
Josh Belandres responded for Tufts with a big 8-6 win at No. 2 over Morgan Schilling and Ian Freer to deadlock the match at one. The final doubles point came at the top position, and Matthew Robinson and Christian Settles avenged an earlier season loss to
Derin Acaroglu and
Vuk Vuksanovic with an 8-6 win to put the Stags back up 2-1 heading to singles.
The Stags extended their lead quickly at the No. 1 position in singles, as Mareedu topped Sharda 6-0, 6-3 to give CMS its third victory of the day. Tufts would rally though, coming on strong with three straight victories to take its first match lead of the day at 4-3.
Vuksanovic had no problems at No. 2 singles as he knocked off Robinson 6-1, 6-1 to pull the Jumbos to within one of CMS. The next win came at No. 6, and it came from a player that came into the match with just five total matches played in
Andrej Djokic. The faith in the first-year paid off for Tufts, as he moved to 5-1 on the season with a thrilling 6-4, 7-6 win to tie the match at three.
Not even five minutes later Tufts picked up its fourth win of the day at No. 5 singles, as
Javier Gonzalez moved to 13-5 overall in singles on the season with a three-set, back-and-forth win with scores of 6-2, 3-6, 6-0.
The tide would turn back to the Stags, as Settles tied the match again at No. 4 singles despite a strong rally from Acaroglu with a CMS win of 6-4, 7-5. Deadlocked at four, the match came down to the No. 3 spot and Ganchev. Up a set already when the fourth point for CMS was clinched, he trailed 5-3 in the second stanza but he stayed the course. He won three straight games to get it to 6-5 with Freer serving. The game would go to a deciding point at deuce, and a forehand fro Freer sailed wide to give Ganchev the win and the Jumbos their first trip to the title match.
When asked post match about being the last one on the court, Ganchev said, "you try not to think about it honestly, because it'll get into your head. You'll feel the pressure, you might crumble. I tried to stay present, take deep breathes, focus point-by-point and hope for the best and just go for it."
The atmosphere at the USTA National Campus was certainly something that helped fuel the Jumbos as well. "Our guys love it, it's great, it makes you feel part of the whole thing. The USTA is doing a tremendous job, NCAA thank you for choosing it to be here and it's been great for everyone."
"Doubles is always important for us," said Gregor when asked about Tuesday's final. "We know its going to be a battle and be the guy that's going to be out there one more shot and do it for the guys."
Tuesday's match with Case Western Reserve will be the first meeting between the two schools in men's tennis.
--JUMBOS--
