CHATTANOOGA, TN (May 19, 2026) -- The No. 3 Tufts University men's tennis team started strong and kept that momentum into singles Tuesday in the 2026 NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Quarterfinals, knocking off No. 7 Swarthmore College 7-1 in action from the Champions Tennis Club on a hot, steamy day in Tennessee. 

The Jumbos (23-2) will now take on the winner of Bowdoin College and the University of Chicago Wednesday afternoon at 11 a.m. in the NCAA semifinals. It will be the fourth appearance in the NCAA semifinals in the last five years for Tufts and second consecutive. The Jumbos will be looking to get back to the NCAA Finals for the second time in program history, as Tufts fell to Case Western Reserce University back in 2023. 

Tuesday's match was a competitive match from the get go, but Tufts was able to claim the doubles' point thanks to wins at the No. 2 and No. 3 positions. Sophomore Stavros Mastrogamvrakis and senior Javier Gonzalez picked up a quick win at No. 3 over Max Linstrom and Winston Zhang 6-2 to put the Jumbos ahead. Swarthmore earned the first game in the match, but Tufts responded with three straight including a break point to make it 3-1. Swarthmore made it 3-2 but three more in a row for Mastrogamvrakis and Gonzelez were enough to clinch the win. 

The doubles' point would be clinched at No. 2 doubles, as Keatan Mehta and Andrej Djokic dominated on first serves won while using a break in the opening game of the match to roll to the victory and doubles' point with a 6-4 win over Andres Fente and Kai Chen. The No. 1 doubles match was abandoned with Tufts up 5-2.  

In singles, Mehta put the Jumbos ahead 2-0 with a straight set win over Hayes Gilbert, cruising to a 6-1, 6-4 victory at No. 6. In the match, Mehta won a whopping 92 percent of his first serves while winning 79 percent (15/19) on second serve returns to roll to the win. He has now won 12 in a row in singles action, and is 16-1 on the season. 

Minutes later, senior Sacha Maes used his strong, powerful serve and volley game to post a 6-3, 6-4 win over Fentes at No. 5 to make it 3-0 Tufts. The clinching point would come at 5-4 with a break point, as Maes had five breaks of serve in the match. Maes extends his win streak to 10, and upped his mark to 16-3 on the season. 

Swarthmore would win at No. 4 singles, but the clinching point to put the Jumbos through to the semifinals came at No. 2 and senior Alex Ganchev. The senior won the was his normal consistent, strong self as he put in 81 percent of first serves while posting five service breaks to clinch the match. The final point came in true Ganchev fashion, as he powered home a winner to send the Jumbos streaming onto the court to celebrate the team victory. 

Matches at No. 1 and No. 3 were left unfinished, as the decision was concluded though Djokic was up 5-2 in the third set. Gonzalez and No. 2 ranked Michael Melnikov were on serve in the third set when it was called off. 

Tufts will look for its second NCAA title match appearance Wednesday at 11 a.m. in another hot and humid day at Champions Tennis Club.