SWARTHMORE, PA (May 12, 2024) -- For the third straight season, the No. 6 Tufts University men's tennis program will travel to the NCAA Championships final site, as the Jumbos moved into the NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Tournament quarterfinals with a sound 5-1 win over No. 8 Swarthmore College in action from Mullen Tennis Center Sunday.
The Jumbos (18-6) will now move on to take on No. 1 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Tuesday, May 21 at 2 p.m. at the Dwight Davis Memorial Tennis Center in St. Louis, Missouri, hosted by Washington University of St. Louis.
Tufts would come out of doubles' action with a 2-1 lead, thanks to victories at the No. 2 and No. 3 positions. The Jumbos (18-6) took the early edge with an 8-5 win at No. 2, thanks to the win by
Derin Acaroglu and
Lachie Macintosh. The pair is now 14-4 together on the season, going 13-3 at the No. 2 spot in 2024.
The lead doubled after another strong performance at No. 3 doubles by the energy duo of
Corey Marley and
Sacha Maes, as the pair got an 8-4 win over Max Lindstrom and Winston Zhang. Marley and Maes are 15-2 now this season, as the 15 doubles' wins is the most of any Tufts pairing thus far this season.
Swarthmore would get a doubles' point though at No. 1 doubles, as
Vuk Vuksanovic and
Alex Ganchev were bested by Michael Melnikov and Utham Koduri, 8-5.
Since the match was moved indoors, only three matches would start after the conclusion of doubles but the Jumbos would pick up wins in all three to secure the victory. Macintosh was a double winner on the day, as he won his seventh straight singles' match with a double bagel 6-0, 6-0 win over Kevin Jiang.
Vuksanovic shook off his doubles' defeat to get into the win column at No. 1 singles thanks to a straight set 6-2, 7-5 win over Melnikov. The clinching win came at No. 2, as
Javier Gonzalez fended off a rally from Lindstrom to post a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 win to punch the Jumbos' ticket to St. Louis. Gonzalez is now 19-9 on the year, and has won nine of his last 10 matches.
Tufts is on the same side of the bracket with Case Western Reserve University and Bowdoin College, while the other side features Emory University, Middlebury College, Denison University and the University of Chicago.
--JUMBOS--
