Box Score

Junior Mike Buxbaum won at both singles and doubles versus the Tartans.

BALTIMORE, MD -- The 21st-ranked Johns Hopkins men's tennis team split a pair of tight matches on Saturday, beating Ursinus (5-4) on the road and falling at home to seventh-ranked Carnegie Mellon (5-4). Both matches were moved indoors due to the unseasonably cold weather in the Mid-Atlantic. Hopkins is now 8-3 overall and 3-1 in the Centennial Conference.

The visiting Tartans took a 2-1 lead after doubles after three tight matches. Abhishek Alla and Yuvraj Kumar earned the first point of the match for the visitors, beating sophomore Justin Kang and freshman Scott Thygesen, 9-7, at third. Juniors Mike Buxbaum and Jeremy Dubin then tied the match with a 9-8 (5) win at first over Vayum Arora and Daniel Levine. Jeffrey Chen and Kenny Zheng won by the same score at second over senior Nicholas Garcia and junior Emerson Walsh to put Carnegie Mellon on top, 2-1, heading into singles.

Dubin tied the match at 2-2 with a 6-3, 6-1 win at second singles over Levine. Then in a battle of two of the top singles players in the region, Buxbaum beat Alla 6-4, 6-2 at first to put Hopkins top. Buxbaum and Alla have played each other in the last two ITA Southeast Singles Championship matches. Zheng answered with a 6-0, 7-5 win at fourth over Kang and the teams were tied at 3-3. Arora swung the lead back in the Tartans' favor as he beat sophomore David Perez 6-3, 7-5 at fifth. Meanwhile, court three saw a marathon of a match with Chaz Downing coming out on top 6-7 (9), 7-6 (6), 6-4 over Garcia to clinch the win. Walsh closed out the match with a 6-4, 6-2 win at sixth over Kunal Wadwani.

Up in Collegeville, Hopkins jumped out to a 3-0 lead but had to hold off a comeback by the home team to earn the win. Freshman Eshan Dave and Nakul Narendran took the first point of the match with an 8-5 win over Max Oberholtzer and Paul Vecchio at first. Junior Jeff Mackenzie and freshman Colin Muraika then beat Tyler Arsenault and Dalton Lynch, 8-5, at second. Senior Nathan Law and freshman Rod Saad closed out doubles play with a 9-8 (5) win over Chanton Phan and Peter Shields at third.

In singles play, the Bears got wins at first and second to pull within one. Oberholzter beat Dave at 6-0, 6-2 and Arsenault won 6-1, 6-2 over Mackenzie. Narendran followed with a 6-3, 6-3 win at third over Lynch and Hopkins led 4-2. Shields cut the deficit back to one as he beat Saad 6-1, 6-2 at sixth, but Muraika clinched the win at fourth with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Phan. Vecchio ended the match with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Law at fifth.

Hopkins is back in action on Tuesday, April 12 as the Blue Jays host the Franklin & Marshall Diplomats. The Centennial Conference match is slated for a 4:00 pm start.