April 14, 2006

WESTMINSTER, MD - The Johns Hopkins men's tennis team, ranked #8 in the Atlantic South, beat the McDaniel Green Terror 6-1 for its third straight win. The Blue Jays improve to 5-5 overall and 3-2 in Centennial Conference play. The Green Terrror fall to 5-9 overall and 0-5 in conference play.

Hopkins opened the match by winning two of the three doubles matches to take an early 1-0 lead. Sophomore Rafi Roberti (Summit, NJ/Summit) and junior Nick Kennedy (Tucson, AZ/Deerfield Academy) paired for an 8-0 win at first doubles. The duo improved to 3-1 in conference play with the win over Brian Kastner and Bill Ross. Sophomore Matt Naftilan (Nashville, TN/Montgomery Bell Academy) and senior Michael Kelly-Sell (Ann Arbor, MI/Pioneer) also won 8-0. The duo beat Mark Winkelstein and Chris Reed at second doubles to improve to 3-0 in conference play. At third doubles, sophomores Jeff Yu (Foster City, CA/San Mateo High School) and Howie Que (Mercer Island, WA/Mercer Island) lost a tough match 9-7 to Aaron Taylor and R.J. Seabeck.

In singles play, the Blue Jays won five of six matches to take the 6-1 win. Roberti, playing in his first match this season at first singles, beat Kastner in straight sets 6-0, 6-0. He improved to 4-1 in conference play. Naftilan, playing in his first match this season at second singles, beat Taylor 6-2, 6-1. Playing in his first match of the season at third singles, Kennedy beat Winkelstein 6-2, 6-2. Kelly-Sell, earned a win at fourth singles in the longest match of the day. He won the first set over Ross 6-4, but Ross won the second by an identical score. The match then went to a super tiebreaker, which Kelly-Sell won 11-9. Que won the final match of the day for Hopkins at fifth singles, with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Reed. Seabeck won the only singles match for the Green Terror at sixth singles. He beat Yu, 7-6, 10-7.

Hopkins returns to action on Sunday, April 16 as the Blue Jays travel to Carnegie Mellon. The match is set for 1:00 pm.