WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (Sept. 18, 2021) – The opening to the 2021 fall season for the Stevens Institute of Technology men's tennis program could not have gone much better as the Ducks finished the Middle Atlantic Conference Individual Championships perfect with every competitor advancing to Sunday's semifinal round.

Led by first-year Vivek Harinarayan at line one singles and graduate student Keegan Morris and senior Marc Feliu at flight one doubles, the defending MAC Freedom Champions did not lose match across seven singles competitors and four doubles teams on the day.

"Our entire team contributed to our success today in each and every singles and doubles flight," head coach Steve Gachko said. "We are on a mission to continue our winning ways tomorrow and bring home medals in each final."

Competing as the No. 1 seed, Harinarayan started his collegiate career with a bang, sweeping his opening round matchup 4-0, 4-0 before taking down Tej Laliwala of York 4-3 (7-1), 4-1 to advance to the semis.

It was another perfect start to a career at line two singles as first-year Matt Luzzi breezed through the first two round of the competition with a pair of 4-0, 4-0 victories to move on to the semifinal matchup with Jeff Bauer of Lebanon Valley College.

Line three singles for the Ducks looked identical to line two with a first-year getting off to a perfect start as Sebastian Wroe won 4-0, 4-0 in each of the first two rounds and will now face off with Chase Wilson of Messiah in the semifinals.

Sophomore Andrew He was the No. 1 seed at line four singles and won in straight sets in both of his matchups. He grabbed a 4-0, 4-1 win in the first round and flipped it for a 4-1, 4-0 to move onto the semifinal against Brady McLucas of Lebanon Valley College.

At line five, Stevens again had a pair of perfect 4-0, 4-0 wins from a first-year, this time by Olof Persson. The first-year out of The Woodlands, Texas, will also face off against an LVC opponent in Michael Schuetz.

After a first round bye at line six, senior Eloi Pradier put himself into the semis with a 4-0, 4-0 victory over Ethan McCombs of DeSales. Pradier will now take on Messiah's Josh Gingerich in the semifinal contest.

The final singles competition, line No. 7, saw senior Brian Li sweep straight through 4-0, 4-0 to move on to his semis and complete the perfect singles day for the Ducks.

In doubles, the combination of Morris and Feliu won 8-1 in the opening round and 8-2 in the quarterfinals and will face off with DeSales in the semifinal.

At flight two, sophomore Aashi Kulakarni and Persson teamed up to open the day with an 8-0 win and then picked up an 8-2 victory in the quarters. The duo now has Bauer and Byler of LVC in the semis.

A pair of first-years in Wroe and Troy Zhang lined up a flight three and received a bye in the opening round before winning 8-1 in the quarterfinal and will now face off against Stevenson's Bifsas and Bonta.

Due to the smaller number of student-athletes in the pool, the first two rounds of the competition at flight four were the quarterfinals and the semifinals.  Graduate student Mark Pabalan and Pradier won 8-1 and 8-5 to advance to the final against Smith and Gettier of Stevenson.

All 11 competitions will continue Sunday as the Ducks look to sweep through the championships for the second consecutive competition after winning 11 titles in the 2019 MAC Individual Championship. 
 
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