May 10, 2009

Box Score

BALTIMORE, MD - The 13th-ranked Johns Hopkins men's tennis teams saw its 15-match win streak snapped in a 6-3 loss to sixth-ranked Amherst in the regional championship Sunday afternoon. The Blue Jays end their season at 16-4 while the Lord Jeffs improve to 26-6 and will face Middlebury in the NCAA Quarterfinals on May 19.

Hopkins got off to a good start, winning two of three doubles matches to take a 2-1 lead. Junior David Maldow (Jericho, NY/Jericho) and sophomore Andrew Wang (Sparta, NJ/Sparta) won their 10th straight match and improved to 19-6 season on the season with an 8-5 win. The pair beat Zack Lerner and Moritz Koenig at first to give the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead. The second and third doubles matches went to tiebreakers, with freshman Jacob Barnaby (Phoenix, AZ/Desert Vista) and sophomore Casey Blythe (Louisville, KY/St. Xavier) edging Austin Chafetz and Pritt Gross 9-8 (7-5) at two to make it a 2-0 match. It was their 11th straight win and team-best 20th of the season. Andrew Jung and Wes Waterman picked up a point for Amherst with a close 9-8 (7-4) win over freshman Warren Elgort (New York, NY/Trinity School) and sophomore Ryan Rauck (Columbus, OH/Bexley).

Amherst evened the score as Chafetz topped Wang 6-3, 6-2 at two, snapping Wang's school-record 15-match win streak. The hosts then took their first lead of the match as Jung beat Elgort 6-3, 6-3 at third. Barnaby tied the match at 3-3 with a straight sets win at fourth. He beat Koenig 7-6 (7-2), 6-3 to extend his win streak to 13. Junior Peter Vale (Haverford, PA/Episcopal Academy) won his first set at sixth, 7-6 (8-6), but Waterman rallied to win the second and third (6-1, 6-2) to give Amherst a 4-3 lead. Just seconds apart, Lerner and Gross rallied at first and fifth, respectively, for match point. Gross beat Blythe just as Lerner edged claimed match point over Maldow to give the Lord Jeffs the win.

Though the team is done, the season is not over for Maldow and Wang as the pair will participate in the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championship May 22-24 at the Claremont McKenna-Harvey Mudd-Scripps Colleges in Claremont, CA. Hopkins 16 wins are the second most in a single season in program history. Barnaby smashed the school record for doubles wins in a season, finishing his rookie campaign with 28 wins. Blythe previously held the record of 20, set last season.