April 29, 2012

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BALTIMORE, MD - The 16th-ranked Johns Hopkins men's tennis team won its sixth straight Centennial Conference crown and seventh in the last eight years when it defeated 27th-ranked Swarthmore, 5-1, on Sunday afternoon. The Blue Jays (17-4) earn the conference's automatic qualifier to the NCAA Tournament with the win.

Freshmen Tanner Brown and Erik Lim put Hopkins on top 1-0 with an 8-1 win at third doubles over Anthony Collard and Daniel Park. Seniors Jacob Barnaby and Warren Elgort pushed that lead two after an 8-5 win defeat of Maxwell Bressman and Max Kaye at first. The Garnet then cut the deficit in half when Christian Carcione and Zak Kelm won a thrilling 9-8 (8-6) match at second over juniors Andy Hersh and Jeffrey Kamei. The Blue Jay duo trailed 7-4 in the match and rallied to tie it at 7 and eventually force the tiebreaker.

In singles play, Brown gave Hopkins a 3-1 lead in the match with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Bressman at second. Elgort then defeated Preston Poon, 6-1, 6-4 at fifth to push the Blue Jays one win closer to the title. Lim closed it out for Hopkins, as he beat Carcione 6-4, 6-3 at sixth to make it 5-1 JHU and clinch the win.

Hopkins advances to the NCAA Tournament for the seventh consecutive season. The first, second and third rounds are scheduled for May 11-13. The Blue Jays will learn their tournament fate on Monday, May 7. Stay tuned to HopkinsSports.com for more information.