HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College men's tennis team enters the 2015 Centennial Conference Tournament as the No. 4 seed. That placement following a three-way tie for third in the regular season earns the Fords (10-5, 6-3 CC) a first round home contest with fifth-seeded Dickinson. In the opening round of the Centennial Conference Tournament, Haverford will be looking to reverse a 6-3 regular season defeat suffered at the hands of the Red Devils (8-5, 6-3 CC). Live scoring will be available through the link above.
The Fords and Red Devils evenly split the six singles matches in the regular season. Haverford will present that same singles lineup from the regular season clash between the conference foes. Dais Nakayama (10-5, 6-1 CC) picked up one of those wins during the regular season meeting at No. 2 singles. He is currently tied for the team lead in singles victories entering the postseason and has won his last three matches, including a win against his regionally-ranked Swarthmore counterpart Saturday. Manning the top position will be Luis Acaba (7-5, 5-2 CC). Acaba has won five of his last seven matches.
Haverford also got a win from Harrison Elbert (9-7, 6-3 CC) at No. 4 singles in the first meeting. He picked up the Fords' most convincing win on that day, allowing just three games to his opponent. That win came as part of season-best five-match winning streak for him during the month of April. At No. 3 singles Zack Mason (7-7, 5-4 CC) saw a hard-fought defeat at Dickinson snap a personal three-match winning streak. However, he bounced back to win his following two matches.
Ishaan Prinz (10-7, 5-3 CC) is tied with Nakayama for the most wins on the team. He has had two separate winning streaks of three matches this season, one of which was snapped at Dickinson. Caleb Mayer (7-6, 4-4 CC) will fill the Fords' sixth singles slot. Four of his losses this season have come in 10-point tiebreakers. He has also won back-to-back matches on four separate occasions.
During the regular season, it was Dickinson that got an early 3-0 lead behind its doubles pairings. Haverford will send back its top two pairings to try and avenge those close losses by 8-6 and 8-5 scores. At the top doubles pairing, Acaba and Elbert are 7-3 together on the year, including a 6-2 mark in Centennial Conference play. The two freshmen that are currently leading the team in singles victories, Nakayama and Prinz, will again team up in doubles where they have combined for five wins in doubles. Haverford has elected to go with Eli Phelps and Benjamin Soloway at No. 3 doubles. That pairing is 4-3 on the year and coming off a win at No. 1 doubles on Monday.
The Fords will be making their ninth appearance in the Centennial Conference Tournament. The Red Devils will be making their first appearance since the 2007 season. Haverford has made it to at least the conference semifinals in each of its first eight appearances in the postseason tournament. The Fords won both of their first round matches contested. They were victorious as a No. 4 seed in 2011 and against as the No. 5 seed in 2012.
The winner of Wednesday's match will advance to the Centennial Conference semifinals where a meeting with top-seeded Johns Hopkins will take place. The winner of the first round match will battle the Blue Jays on Saturday.
