HOBOKEN, N.J. (May 6, 2021) – Looking to advance to the MAC Freedom Championship match and stay unbeaten, the Stevens Institute of Technology men's tennis team earned a 5-1 victory over Fairleigh Dickinson University-Florham Campus to accomplish both feats in a big way.
The Ducks started the day by taking two of the three doubles points and then won in straight sets in singles lines one, two and four to improve to 10-0 on the season and advance to the MAC Freedom title match against the #2 seed DeSales University.
FDU, meanwhile, was able to take the first point off Stevens all season at flight two doubles 8-4 but could not muster another win as they close their season with a 6-5 overall record.
"Our guys did a great job keeping the pressure on FDU from start to finish today," head coach
Steve Gachko said. "I'm especially proud of
Mark Pabalan stepping up in singles today who is usually our doubles specialist. We are looking forward to taking on DeSales tomorrow in the conference title."
In doubles play, both
Marc Feliu and
Aashi Kulakarni at flight one and
Garrett Kincaid and Pabalan at flight three earned impressive 8-1 victories. The loss at flight two doubles was the first loss of the season for Stevens and snapped a streak of 77 consecutive points won by the Ducks this season.
It was Pabalan who earned the first win of the day for Stevens as he took home a 6-1, 6-1 victory on line four. He is now 4-0 in singles competition this season and has yet to drop a set.
At line one, Feliu finished with a 6-0, 6-1 straight set win of his own. Much like Pabalan, Feliu has not lost a set all season and has outscored his opponents 108-13 in singles play this season.
Kulakarni then wrapped up the race to five points for the Ducks with a perfect 6-0, 6-0 victory at line two. It was his third perfect performance at singles this year as he too has yet to fall in a set.
Next Up: The MAC Freedom Championship will feature Stevens versus DeSales in Hoboken for the second time this season. The Ducks blanked the Bulldogs 9-0 when the two teams faced off in the regular season on April 24. Live stats will be available on StevensDucks.com.
Facebook: "Like" Stevens Athletics
Twitter: @stevensducks
Instagram: @stevensducks
#AllRise
