SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (May 9, 2013) – The Stevens Institute of Technology men's tennis team will take on No. 22 University of Mary Washington tomorrow, Friday, May 10 at 9 a.m. in the Second Round of the NCAA Championship. 

The match will be played on the outdoor courts at Amherst College in Amherst, Mass., pending weather conditions.  In the event of inclement weather, the match will be moved to the Magic Lincer Tennis Academy in Windsor, Conn.

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 sub-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 The College of New Jersey 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 this morning advanced Stevens to the Second Round.

Mary Washington received a first-round bye in the tournament after taking the CAC Championship with an 8-1 win over Salisbury University.  The Eagles most recently fell at Washington & Lee University, 5-4, after beating the Generals, ranked No. 23 in the nation at the time, 6-3, at home earlier in the season.  The Eagles' schedule and record this season are nearly identical to Stevens', as Mary Washington defeated two ranked teams in No. 23 Washington & Lee and No. 26 Swarthmore College (5-4), with all but one of their 10 defeats coming to nationally ranked opponents, including a 5-4 loss to No. 16 Pomona-Pitzer College and a trio of 6-3 decisions.

The Eagles' lineup is fronted by sophomore Tyler Carey, who is 9-7 at first singles this season. Junior Alex Blakhin has gone 3-8 at second singles since dropping down after a 2-4 record at #1, while sophomore Evan Charles is 5-9 at third singles.  Senior Sam Wichlin has posted a 2-3 record at fourth singles, while freshman David Lunding-Johansson is 6-5 at #4 and 4-4 at #5.  Sophomore Kaleb Nguyen is 6-4 at fifth singles and 1-1 at sixth, with senior Will Apperson 4-8 at sixth singles.  With Charles' usual doubles partner, Donato Rizzolo, unavailable for the, he will likely pair up with Wichlin at #1 for only the second time this season (they won vs. Washington & Lee in the season finale).  That will leave Carey and Nguyen to play at second doubles, where they have gone 8-8 with a 5-1 record at #1, while Blakhin and Lunding-Johansson man court three, where they won their only match together against Washington & Lee.

Heinrich leads the Ducks with an incredible 23-5 record as a rookie, including a 9-1 mark at first singles, while senior Chris Rosensteel (East Windsor, N.J.) is 23-8 overall and 9-2 at second singles.  Senior Shota Tasaki (Greenwich, Conn.) has gone 7-2 since moving up to third singles while freshman Ben Foran (Whitefish Bay, Wis.) is 5-2 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 (3-1 at #5).  Heinrich and Rosensteel are one victory shy of their 20^th on the season at first doubles (19-3), while Foran and Tasaki have gone 14-4 at second doubles and Smith and Tisdale have paired up for a 7-4 mark at threes (11-4 overall).

Stevens and Mary Washington shared three common opponents this season in Swarthmore, No. 1 Kenyon College and Vassar College; both defeated Vassar while falling at Kenyon, with Mary Washington squeaking out the 5-4 win vs. Swarthmore while Stevens came up just short, 4-5.  Neither team picked up a win in singles play at Kenyon, but the Ducks took first and second doubles 8-4 and 8-5, respectively, while the Eagles won 8-3 at first doubles, although Kenyon swapped partners between the three courts over the two matches.  Mary Washington defeated Vassar, 6-3, with wins at second-sixth singles and third doubles, while Stevens won 5-4 with singles victories at two-four as well as first and second doubles, although Vassar was without its usual #4 singles player against the Eagles.  Heinrich also took Vassar's Andrew Guzick right down to the wire (6-4, 3-6, 2-6) while Blakhin fell in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4.  Tisdale (6-7 [5], 1-6) and Smith (6-4, 4-6, 2-6) competed well at #5 and 6, respectively.

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.

Head Coach Steve Gachko and the Ducks will attempt to reach their first-ever sub-regional finals tomorrow, Friday, May 10 at 9 a.m.   The match will be available to view via LiveStats through this link.  Be sure to follow our live Twitter accounts as well: @StevensDucks and @Ducks_Tennis, and "Like" us on Facebook at StevensAthletics and Stevens Men's Tennis.


Amherst Regional

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