April 17, 2010

Box Score

BALTIMORE, MD - The Johns Hopkins men's team battled visiting Washington College under windy conditions in Baltimore Saturday, coming out with an 8-0 victory. Hopkins improves to 14-4 overall with its fifth straight win, while remaining unbeaten in Centennial Conference play with a 7-0 mark. It is the Blue Jays' 36th straight conference win. Washington College slips to 10-4 and 4-3 in the conference.

Hopkins swept the doubles to open the match to take a 3-0 lead overall. Sophomore Warren Elgort (New York, NY/Trinity School) and Ryan Rauck (Columbus, OH/Bexley) dropped just one game in beating Aaron Ellison and John Menzione, 8-1, at third. Sophomore Jacob Barnaby (Phoenix, AZ/Desert Vista) and junior Casey Blythe (Louisville, KY/St. Xavier) then won, 8-2, at second over Josh Hedrick and Timothy Parks. Senior David Maldow (Jericho, NY/Jericho) and junior Andrew Wang (Sparta, NJ/Sparta) beat Adam Cranford and Kevin Papen, 8-3, at first.

In singles action, Hopkins took the top three matches before winning the fourth and fifth matches in pro sets. Elgort won in straight sets, beating Ellison, 6-4, 6-1 at third. Wang also won in straight sets with a 7-5, 6-0 win at second over Papen. Maldow then won a tight three-set match at first over Cranford. Maldow won the first set 6-2, but Cranford answered with a 6-4 win in the second to force a super-tiebreaker in the third. Maldow won the super-tiebreaker, 12-10, to win the match for his 25th career conference win. That ties him with Kevin Alford '03 for the Hopkins' record. With the match already decided, the remaining matches were played in pro sets. Barnaby lost just two games in an 8-2 win at fourth over Kyle Lisco and at fifth, senior Peter Vale (Haverford, PA/Episcopal) won 8-3 over Hedrick. The sixth singles match was not played.

With two conference matches remaining, Hopkins sits alone atop the Centennial Conference standings with an unblemished 7-0 record. The Blue Jays are a match up on the second-place Swarthmore Garnet and have already beaten the Garnet this year. Hopkins returns to action with a pair of non-conference regional matches on Sunday, April 18. Hopkins will travel to Fredericksburg, VA to take on 22nd-ranked Mary Washington at noon and 27th-ranked Hampden-Sydney at 4:00 pm.