CLAREMONT, CA (May 19, 2025) -- The No. 3 Tufts University men's tennis team played inspired tennis Monday afternoon in the 2025 NCAA Division III NCAA Tournament quarterfinals at Biszantz Family Tennis Center at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, topping No. 6 Emory University 4-0 to roll in the national semifinals on Tuesday.
The victory pushed Tufts into the NCAA Final Four for the third time in program history, as the Jumbos will take on No. 2 Denison University at 5 p.m. local time / 8 p.m. Eastern at CMS.Tufts has played Denison three times prior to Tuesday's upcoming tilt, holding a 3-0 mark against the Big Red with wins in 2019, 2015 and 2014.
The win over Emory in the NCAA quarterfinals was the second time in the last three seasons that the Jumbos moved past the Eagles to get into the national semifinals, defeating EU 5-2 back in 2023 en route to the national title match.
As for Monday's match against Emory (17-5), Tufts came out strong in doubles as the No. 3 pair of
Derin Acaroglu and
Stavros Mastrogamvrakis defeated Dean Kamenev and John Lasanajak 6-3 to get the Jumbos on the board. It was just the fifth match with the two Jumbos together, but they improved to 4-1 on the year.
Tufts (23-2) would clinch the doubles' point minutes later at No. 2, as the No. 12 ranked doubles' grouping of
Alex Ganchev and
Sacha Maes bested Efe Comu and Ajay Kartik 6-4. The No. 1 match featuring No. 4
Vuk Vuksanovic and Javier Gonzelez against Denison's No. 8 Christian Liew and Ruilin Feng was abandoned at 6-6.
In singles play, Gonzalez was efficient and strong as he won his ninth straight match at No. 2 to top Feng 6-2, 6-1. Gonzalez, who was ranked No. 17 nationally was able to pull the minor upset over the slightly higher-ranked Feng at No. 13. Gonzalez is now 17-4 on the year.
Vuksanovic would pull Tufts within one of the team victory at the top spot, as he won in straight sets over Kamenev 6-3, 6-4. Vuksanovic is now 23-2 and has won his last 14 singles' finishes.
The clinching point would come at No. 6, as sophomore
Garv Bahl was also a straight-set winner with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Lasanajak. Bahl is now 10-1 on the year, and has yet to lose while playing at No. 6 this year.
The final three matches were abandoned prior to finish as the match was played to decision, but Emory had earned a set in each of the remaining three contests.
Denison was able to outlast Johns Hopkins University 4-3 in the other quarterfinal, while the winner of host Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Babson College will play the winner of Case Western Reserve University and the University of Chicago.
--JUMBOS--
