SWARTHMORE, Pa. — The Haverford College men's tennis team (7-11, 5-1 CC) dropped a 6–1 decision to Hood Trophy rival No. 7 Swarthmore (15-6, 6-0 CC) on Friday afternoon in Centennial Conference play at the Faulkner Tennis Courts. The victory earns the Garnet another point in the coveted Hood Trophy Rivalry as they now have a minuscule edge over the Fords at 7-6 heading into the penultimate weekend of the regular season.
Swarthmore seized early control by sweeping all three doubles matches. First doubles finished saw Michael Melnikov and Purushotham Koduri defeated Marko Arboleda and Robbie Vazquez by a 6–3 score to give the Garnet an early edge. At third doubles, Max Lindstrom and Winston Zhang followed with a 6–3 victory against Caden Hsia and Stefan Johnson. Second doubles wrapped up the point, with Kai Chen and Andres Fente earning a 6–4 win over Teo Bortan and Niki Lavu to secure a 1–0 lead heading into singles.
In singles play, Swarthmore continued its momentum, claiming five of the six matches. At first singles, Melnikov defeated Lavu 6–2, 6–3 to make the score 2–0. Second singles followed shortly after, as Lindstrom posted a 6–3, 6–1 win over Arboleda to extend the advantage to 3–0.
At fifth singles, Hayes Gilbert earned a 6–2, 4–6, 6–1 victory against Vazquez, claiming match-clinching fourth point to make the score 4–0 Garnet. Fourth singles then saw Nikola Galov register a 6–4, 6–3 win over Johnson to make it 5–0. At third singles, Rishi Verma outlasted Bortan in a tight contest, 6–1, 6–7(4-7 tiebreaker), 1-0 (10–6 tiebreaker), extending the margin to 6–0.
Haverford avoided the sweep at sixth singles, where Hsia rallied for a 0–6, 7–6(7-3 tiebreaker), 6–4 victory against Chen in the final match of the afternoon, setting the final score at 6–1.
The Fords will look to bounce back on Saturday, April 18, hosting Stevens on Senior Day. First serve against the Ducks is scheduled for 2 p.m.
