SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (May 10, 2013) – The Stevens Institute of Technology men's tennis team will face top-seeded regional host No. 3 Amherst College in the Third Round of the NCAA Championship tomorrow, Saturday, May 11 at 9 a.m.

The Ducks defeated No. 22 University of Mary Washington, 5-4, to reach their first-ever Round of 16.  Mary Washington is the highest-ranked opponent the Ducks have ever beaten, following No. 30 The College of New Jersey two weeks ago.

Brackets: Interactice ; Printable

Program

Stevens, which just landed all six starters and eight total selections on the All-Empire 8 Athletic Conference Teams, including Player and Rookie of the Year freshman Matthew Heinrich (Hendersonville, Tenn.), is the de facto No. 3 seed as one of four unranked teams in the Amherst regional, having posted a 15-7 overall record, with all seven losses coming to national top-27 opponents.  The Ducks earned the program's first-ever win over a ranked opponent this season in defeating previously unbeaten NCAA participant No. 30 TCNJ and locked up an unprecedented fourth consecutive Empire 8 Athletic Conference title this past weekend, topping Ithaca College, 5-2, to secure the conference's automatic NCAA bid. A 5-0 victory over Baruch in the First Round on Thursday morning advanced Stevens to the Second Round.

Amherst earned a bye in the First Round despite falling to archrival No. 6 Williams College in the NESCAC Championship, 5-4.  The Lord Jeffs made their fifth consecutive NCAA Championship, in which they have recorded a 24-13 all-time record, becoming runners-up in 2009 and 2010 before winning it all In 2011.  Amherst came into the tournament on the heels of a 14-match win streak that Williams had broken and topped TCNJ, 5-0, in the Second Round.  Amherst certainly earned its national ranking this season, overcoming a slow 3-4 start to defeat eight ranked teams in the final month of the season, including a 5-4 win over Williams and wins over three other NCAA Championship participants.

The Lord Jeffs boast three of the top four singles players in the ITA Northeast Rankings in junior Joey Fritz, senior Mark Kahan and freshman Andrew Yaraghi along with freshman Ben Fife, who is ranked 23^rd in the region.  Kahan and freshman Michael Solimano have paired up at first doubles to post a 6-3 record this season, with Yaraghi and Fife going 10-2 at twos while Fritz and junior Justin Reindel have gone 5-0 at third doubles. Fritz, Kahan and Yaraghi front the lineup at first (10-3), second (14-5) and third (19-4) singles, respectively, with Fife holding things down with an 18-10 record at #4 in his rookie season.  Dale and Reindel round out the lineup at fifth (10-3) and sixth (13-2) singles, respectively.

Heinrich leads the Ducks with an incredible 24-5 record as a rookie, including a 10-1 mark at first singles, while senior Chris Rosensteel (East Windsor, N.J.) is 24-8 overall and 10-2 at second singles.  Senior Shota Tasaki (Greenwich, Conn.) has gone 8-2 since moving up to third singles while freshman Ben Foran (Whitefish Bay, Wis.) is 5-3 at fourth singles.  Freshman Tyler Tisdale (Grapevine, Texas) is 5-10 at fifth singles (4-0 at #4) and senior Derek Smith (Boise, Idaho) rounds out the lineup with a 2-9 record at sixth singles (3-2 at #5).  Heinrich and Rosensteel won their 20^th match of the year at first doubles (20-3) while Foran and Tasaki have gone 15-4 at second doubles as Smith and Tisdale have paired up for an 11-5 mark at threes (7-5 overall).

Stevens swept through the Empire 8 this season, capping a third straight season with an undefeated mark in conference play (7-0) before defeating #4 seed St. John Fisher College, 5-0, and #2 seed Ithaca College, 5-2.  The Ducks won an unprecedented fourth straight Empire 8 Championship and eighth conference title over the past nine years dating back to their four-year run in the Skyline Conference from 2004-07.  The team achieved a program-record No. 8 ranking the Northeast region of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Division III Men's Rankings this season, while Heinrich and Rosensteel were ranked as the No. 4 doubles pairing in the region and came in at No. 13 and No. 14, respectively, in the singles rankings this past week.  The duo learned yesterday that they have been selected to play in the NCAA Individual Championships in two weeks in Kalamazoo, Mich.  They are the first players in program history to advance to the individual championships, which pit the top 32 singles players (eight from each region) and 16 doubles teams (four from each region) against each other.  Seeding will take place on the final day of the team competition, which concludes on Wednesday, May 22.

This marks Stevens' sixth NCAA Championship appearance in the past seven years, over which the Ducks have now advanced to the Second Round in each of the last four seasons and five of the last six.  In their last NCAA appearance in 2012, the Ducks topped Wilkes University, 5-1, in the First Round for the program's third-ever NCAA win before falling 5-1 to No. 29 MIT, with Stevens winning at second doubles and forcing a pair of three-set singles matches. The Ducks also advanced to the Second Round in 2011, winning 5-2 over Drew University but falling 5-1 at defending national champion No. 10 Middlebury College, while in 2010 Stevens received a bye in the First Round before falling 5-3 at No. 24 MIT, in which the Ducks were swept at doubles, including a tight 8-6 loss at threes, but mounted a furious rally behind straight-set victories at first, second and third singles and a three-set thriller at fifth singles that fell just short.

In the event of inclement weather, the match will be moved to the Grande Meadows Tennis & Health Club in Longmeadow, Mass.  The 9 a.m. showdown will be available to view via LiveStats through this link.  Be sure to follow our live Twitter accounts as well: @StevensDucks and @Ducks_Tennis (#Ducksonamission), and "Like" us on Facebook at StevensAthletics and Stevens Men's Tennis.
 
Amherst Regional

First Round – Thursday, May 9
TCNJ def. Babson                                                               5-1
Stevens def. Baruch                                                           5-0
 
Second Round – Friday, May 10
No. 3 Amherst def TCNJ                                                    5-0
Stevens def. No. 22 Mary Washington                            5-4
 
Third Round – Saturday, May 11                                  
No. 3 Amherst vs. Stevens                                               9 a.m.