Box Score

LANCASTER, PA - The 10th-ranked Johns Hopkins men's tennis team got a big win from freshman Jacob Lin to avoid an upset at host Franklin & Marshall Wednesday afternoon. The Blue Jays defeated the Diplomats 5-4 to run its conference win streak to 78 straight wins. Hopkins is now 9-5 overall and 4-0 in the Centennial Conference, while F&M slips to 6-5 and 4-1.

The Diplomats took the early lead in the match as Nolan Bacchieri and Vasant Rajamanickam beat seniors Tanner Brown and Ben Hwang, 8-6 at second doubles. The Blue Jays tied it up when junior Noah Joachim and freshman Justin Kang beat Doug Kaplan and Jack Rothman, 8-4, at first. Hopkins then grabbed a 2-1 lead as Lin and sophomore Jeff Mackenzie won 9-8 (3) at third over Will Samuels and Evan Dapreau.

Hopkins took a 3-1 lead in the match after Mackenzie beat Rajamanickam 6-3, 6-1 at fifth singles. Brown pushed the Blue Jays one point closer to victory with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Rothman at third. The Diplomats began chipping away at the lead however, winning three straight matches to tie the score at 4-4. Kaplan started the comeback at first as he beat Hwang 7-5, 6-3. Samuels then defeated Kang 6-3, 5-7, 1-0 (6) at fourth to pull the Dips within one. Bacchieri evened the match with a 6-2, 4-6, 1-0 (5) win at second over Joachim. The match came down to sixth singles where Lin was down a set and trailed 4-1 in the second. He battled back to win the second set 6-4 and force a tiebreaker, which he won 7-3 to claim the win for the Blue Jays.

Hopkins returns to action on Thursday, April 9 as the Blue Jays host the Swarthmore Garnet. The match, which has been postponed twice, is slated for a 4:00 pm start in Baltimore.