MIDDLEBURY, VT (May 2, 2025) -- The top-seeded and No. 3 Tufts University men's tennis team cruised into the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) semifinals on Friday morning, blanking No. 8 seed Colby College 4-0 in action from the Middlebury College Tennis Courts in conference tournament quarterfinal action.
The Jumbos (20-1) will now take on No. 5 Middlebury College Saturday at 11 a.m. in Middlebury after the Panthers swept Williams 4-0 in the quarterfinals Friday morning.
Tufts and Colby's match was pushed back to allow for some drying, but once the two teams hit the court it was a very competitive doubles display. The Jumbos got on the board first thanks to a win at No. 3 by
Derin Acaroglu and
Lachie Macintosh, as the duo defeated Josh Kaplan and Diego Sosa 6-3. The No. 25 ranked doubles squad of Jason Daly and Jake Cohen would bring the doubles' match even though at No. 1, as the Mule pair defeated No. 2
Vuk Vuksanovic and
Javier Gonzalez, 6-4.
The doubles' point was decided at No. 2 Friday morning, as
Sacha Maes and
Alex Ganchev fought off a late rally by Marco Ziets-Segura and Aidan Kwong to earn a 6-4 win. Maes and Ganchev are now an impressive 14-1 together in 2024-25.
In singles, Tufts' lead would double to 2-0 thanks to a clean sweep by senior
Derin Acaroglu at No. 3 as he powered past Sosa 6-0, 6-0 for his 12th singles' win of the year. Sophomore
Garv Bahl would make it 3-0 for the Jumbos at No. 5 with a 6-1, 6-1 triumph as he stayed undefeated on the year at 7-0.
The clinching point would come at the top spot as Vuksanovic, ranked No. 4 in the most recent Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) singles rankings, knocked off No. 37 Jake Cohen 6-2, 6-3 to push the Jumbos through to the semifinals. Vuksanovic has now won 11 straight singles' outings for Tufts, and is 20-2 overall on the season.
Tufts was leading in all of the other three matches before the match was halted at completion.
The Jumbos and Panthers will square off for the fourth time in the last five NESCAC Tournaments, with the Jumbos looking for their first postseason win over Middlebury in that span.
--JUMBOS--
