The men’s tennis team continued their winning fashion last weekend as the eighth-ranked Blue Jays topped Ursinus in Baltimore. This win notched their tenth win of the season and their sixth straight victory.
Not only was the team victorious, but they managed to shut out the Bears with a score of 9-0.
Hopkins came out of the gates hot and the success never stopped. Andy Hersh and Jeff Kamei gave the team a lead in the first match by knocking off Ursinus’ David Rowe and Mike Melchiorre.
That performance was followed up by and 8-1 win in doubles by Noah Joachim and Nicholas Garcia. Tanner Brown and Erik Lim beat Evan Lord and Logan Metcalf-Kelly with a score of 8-2, capping off doubles play.
Singles went just as smoothly for the Blue Jays as all six members of the team cruised to convincing wins. Noah Joachim started the Blue Jays off by breezing past Dalton Lynch, winning the match 6-0, 6-0. Ben Hwang secured the second win playing in the second spot with another 6-0, 6-0 rout of Ursinus’ Dylan Marsh.
Joonas Karjalainen and Jeremy Schwartz also grabbed two more wins over Mike Melchiorre and David Rowe, respectively. The match ended with wins for Sam Weissler playing third and Andy Hersh playing first. These wins served as Weissler and Hersh’s 11th wins this season.
The entire team only lost a total of 10 games throughout the course of the competition. The team’s success this season has come from a variety of hard working athletes. Captain Andy Hersh had a lot to say about his teammates and how hard they have worked this season.
“Sam Weissler and Nick Garcia have really stepped up big for us this year. Going into the season we had a question mark as to who was going to play six and Sam separated himself from the pack and earned it. Sam has played big roles in matches against Trinity, Carnegie and Bates and has yet to drop a set this spring. Nick Garcia has also found his way into the singles line up after a devastating loss to Jensen Reiter (broken foot). Nick has played a big part of our doubles line up and recently had a major win at six against a top player at Carnegie. As always, Tanner Brown has been exceptional as well in both singles and doubles play.”
Hopkins has a couple of tough matches coming up. They have to face Haverford and Franklin & Marshall before playing a few more out of conference matches against Mary Washington and North Carolina Wesleyan.
“We are looking forward to playing Mary Washington and the always tough North Carolina Wesleyan team at the end of our season, who is one of our biggest and most hated rivals,” said Hersh.
The Blue Jays know that the remainder of their season will not be easy, but their captain says the team is feeling confident.
“After a tough loss over spring break to Trinity we have really come together as a team and have been able to beat some conference and regional rivals fairly handily. Head Coach Chuck Willenborg has helped to prepare us better and intensity in practices has really picked up,” said Hersh.
“Although we have ousted our most recent opponents we still have a lot of work to do. Fitness will be key over the course of the next two months as the weather hopefully warms up. Also, we need to see a lot more improvement in doubles play. On paper, we are the favorites for the rest of our matches here on out. With that said, I hope we take care of business and finish strong going into conferences so we can host regionals here in Baltimore.”
Hopkins returns back to Homewood Saturday, April 13th to host Centennial Conference foe Haverford. Haverford, much like the Blue Jays, has seen an immense increase in performance as the season has progressed.
The Fords look to continue their high level of achievement and extend their winning streak as they come to Baltimore this weekend. Hopkins will be ready to battle their conference foe.
