April 6, 2008

Box Score

PITTSBURGH, PA - The #22 Johns Hopkins men's tennis team avenged last year's loss to Carnegie Mellon with a 6-3 win over the #17 Tartans on Sunday afternoon. In the win, senior Rafael Roberti (Summit, NJ/Summit) won his 45th career singles match, breaking Kevin Alford ('03) record of 44. Hopkins improves to 7-5 on the season while Carnegie Mellon slips to 12-6.

Hopkins swept all three doubles matches to take control of the match early. Roberti and senior Matt Naftilan (Nashville, TN/Montgomery Bell Academy) beat Bobby MacTaggart and Alex Nemerov 8-6 at third. Sophomore David Maldow (Jericho, NY/Jericho Senior) and freshman Andrew Wang (Sparta, NJ/Sparta) then won 9-8 (7-3) at second, beating Andrew Clearfield and Ravi Raghavan. Senior Joe Vasoontara (Bangkok, Thailand/Loomis Chaffee) and freshman Casey Blythe (Louisville, KY/Saint Xavier) wrapped up doubles with an 8-6 win at first over Nikola Ljuboja and James Muliawan.

The Tartans won at first, second and third singles to tie the match at 3-3. The Blue Jays responded with wins at fourth, fifth and sixth to take the match. Muliawan beat Vasoontara 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) at second to make it 3-1. Clearfield then won in three sets at first, beating Maldow 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (7-4). Nemerov then won at third over Wang 6-7 (2-7), 6-2, 6-2 to knot the match at 3-3. Sophomore Peter Vale (Haverford, PA/Episcopal Academy) gave Hopkins a 4-3 lead when he beat MacTaggart 6-3, 6-2 at fifth. Blythe then clinched the match for the Blue Jays with a three-set win over Jon Spero at fourth. Roberti then closed out the match with a 6-0, 7-5 win at sixth over Raghavan. Roberti is now 45-23 in singles in his career.

Hopkins, which has won seven of its last nine matches, will take on Washington College in a crucial Centennial Conference match on Wednesday, April 9. The match is scheduled to start at 4:00 pm.