M. Tennis moves up to 16th in Nat'l polls

The Hopkins men's tennis team placed no doubt in opponents' minds that they are poised for their seventh straight conference title this season. Now ranked 16th in the National Division III polls, Head coach Jamie Engle's team has won three straight matches. recently rolling over conference competition; Ursinis this past Saturday and Franklin & Marshall this past Tuesday. The Blue Jays came into Saturday's match against the Bears already with two straight shutouts in conference play and followed suit on Saturday. Hopkins jumped to an early lead with the help of freshmen Ed Corty and Noah Joachim in doubles play as they won, 8-0. Next, junior Andy Hersh and freshman Sam Weissler continued to keep the foot on the pedal and won, 8-1. Senior Jacob Barnaby and sophomore German Gonzalez began to see some resistance in the third and final doubles match, but were able to pull out an 8-6 victory. Off to a quick lead, the Blue Jays continued to play fundamentally sound and aggressive in singles play. Freshman Tanner Brown only lost one game (6-0, 6-1) in his singles match, while freshman Jensen Reiter matched Brown's play with a 6-1,6-0 win of his own. Hersh and Weissler then won to put Hopkins ahead, 7-0. David Greenbaum was next on deck, outscoring his counterpart 12-1. The match came to a close when sophomore Joonas Karjalainen won in a shutout. Hopkins would quickly improve to 5-0 in the conference with a win over Franklin and Marshall Tuesday afternoon. Barnaby and Brown led off for the Blue Jays with a clutch opening doubles victory, 8-2. Juniors Morgan Dauer and Jeff Kamei then won the second game, 8-3. F&M bounced back with a win in the finals doubles match, but Kamei quickly put the Blue Jays back into the driver's seat with a 6-0, 6-0 win to start singles play. Already up 3-1, Weissler then won 6-1, 6-1. Barnaby clinched the big win for the Blue Jays with a 6-1, 6-4victory and Brown and Hersh continued to dominate the match with wins at singles. The Blue Jays return to action on Saturday, Apr. 7, as the team will take on Centennial Conference opponent Haverford.