The Blue Jays men’s tennis team squeaked by No. 39 Christopher Newport University and dominated unranked Ursinus College in a weekend, split-squad doubleheader.
The No. 10 Jays faced off against the Captains of Christopher Newport at home, and the match did not disappoint. The battle between the two ranked teams would go down-to-the-wire and would only be clinched after a 6-2, 6-1 win by senior Jensen Reiter. The Jays went into singles play with an early 2-1 lead after seniors Tanner Brown and Erik Lim, along with sophomore Jeremy Dubin and senior Ben Hwang, won at first and third doubles, respectively. In the second doubles match, junior Nicholas Garcia and senior Noah Joachim fell 9-7 against sophomore Steven Boslet and junior Chiraag Shetty.
In singles, the Jays split 3-3. Dubin won at first, with Brown at fourth and Reiter at sixth. Hwang, Joachim and Lim all fell at second, third and fifth, respectively. Joachim squandered a one-set lead and lost 1-6, 6-4, 7-5 in the only three-set match of the day.
The other half of the squad traveled to Collegeville, Pa. to take on the Ursinus Bears. From the beginning, the Jays dominated the match. They jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in doubles after sophomore Emerson Walsh and freshman Justin Kang won at first, senior Edward Corty and sophomore Jeff Mackenzie won at second and freshman Jacob Lin and junior Chris Jou at third.
From first to sixth, Walsh, Jou, Corty, Kang, Mackenzie and Lin all won their respective matches easily. The Jays didn’t drop a single set in singles all day.
The Jays have a top-seeded schedule so far this season, facing off against No. 1 , 3, 7, 12, 26, 37 and 39 teams in the nation.
“We’ve performed well so far,” Walsh said, “but we know we can do better.”
The Jays will take on conference rivals No. 29 Swarthmore and unranked Haverford, as well as No. 9 Carnegie Mellon, in Pittsburgh this weekend.
