HOBOKEN, N.J. (February 29, 2020) – The Stevens Institute of Technology men's tennis team hosted Haverford College in a non-conference dual match at the Washington Township Tennis club on Saturday. Haverford jumped out to an early lead and found a way to grit some tough singles wins to secure the win over Stevens, 6-3. The Ducks drop to 0-4 on the season and the Fords improve their record to 1-1.

"Hats off to Haverford on a hard-fought win today. I was particularly proud of our fight in singles after being down 3-0 after doubles," remarked Head Coach Steve Gachko. "We almost pulled it out but didn't take advantage of the few chances we had in the important moments. When two out of the three doubles matches come down to a tiebreaker and five out of the six singles matches go to a third set we need to convert more in those high pressure moments. I'm confident this group will continue to improve and be ready to get back to work on Monday."

Haverford got on the board first thanks to a win in the first doubles flight of the day. David Kong and Kevin Yan defeated sophomore Marc Feliu and junior Mark Kanevsky 8-5 to put the Fords up 1-0 in the dual. The second and third doubles flights were both highly contested matches that came down to tiebreakers. Patrick Kley and Rob Kresch were able to outlast junior Gabriel Sifuentes and sophomore Eloi Pradier in tiebreaker, 8-7 (9-7) to secure Haverford's second doubles win of the day. In similar fashion the Ducks third duo came up just short in the final doubles flight of the match. Junior Keegan Morris and freshman Philip Szkudlarski fell in tiebreaker, 8-7 (8-6), to George Jiang and Pranav Krishnan. Haverford carried a 3-0 heading into singles competition which meant Stevens would need to win five of the six singles flights to comeback.

Keegan Morris secured the first team point for Stevens in the match thanks to a three-set victory in the No. 1 singles flight. Morris bested Kevin Yan 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 to cut into Haverford's lead and bring the dual score to 4-1. Stevens comeback was halted after Rob Kresch defeated junior Arjun Krishnan in three-sets. Krishnan bounced back after dropping the first set and was able push the third set into tiebreaker, however, Kresch was able to secure the singles and dual win for Haverford with a 7-6 (7-1) third set victory. Marc Feliu and Gabriel Sifuentes were able to end the match on a high note by winning their respective flights in three-sets. Feliu defeated David Kong 7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 7-5 and Sifuentes won 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 over Arnav Patodia.

Up Next: The Stevens men's tennis team will continue their rigorous non-conference schedule next Saturday down in Maryland where the Ducks will take on Salisbury University. Match is set to start at 10:00 AM.

Facebook: "Like" Stevens Athletics     
Twitter: @stevensducks
Instagram: @stevensducks
Snapchat: ducks_athletics
#AllRise