Box Score

Junior Jeremy Dubin clinched the title for the Blue Jays.

SWARTHMORE, PA – The 26th-ranked Johns Hopkins men's tennis team upended top-seeded and 22nd-ranked Swarthmore, 5-1, on Sunday afternoon in the Centennial Conference Championship. The Blue Jays (16-5) win their 10th straight and 11th overall title and earn the conference's automatic qualifier to the NCAA Tournament. Senior Nicholas Garcia was named the tournament MVP after going a combined 4-0 on the weekend.

Hopkins didn't need much time to pick up the first point of the match as Garcia and junior Emerson Walsh beat Ari Cepelewicz and Simon Vernier, 8-1, at second doubles. Juniors Mike Buxbaum and Jeremy Dubin then doubled the Blue Jays' lead to 2-0 with an 8-5 win at first over Mark Fallati and Josh Powell. Swarthmore, which had beaten Hopkins 5-4 during the regular season after trailing 2-1, were looking to repeat that script. John Larkin and Blake Oetting did their part with an 8-5 win at third over sophomore David Perez and freshman Scott Thygesen.

Hopkins had won 84 straight conference matches prior to that loss at Swarthmore in April and the Blue Jays weren't going to let this one get away. Garcia, who clinched the win in the semifinals, was the first one off the court in singles. He beat Cepelewicz 6-3, 6-3 to push Hopkins' lead to 3-1. Walsh followed with a 6-3, 6-0 win at sixth over James Hahn to push the Blue Jays to within one of victory. Dubin did the honors at second as he won a tight first set, 7-5, but then took the second, 6-1, over Larkin to clinch the victory.

Hopkins will make its 11th straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament when the bracket is announced at Noon on Monday, May 9. Stay tuned to HopkinsSports.com to see where and who the Blue Jays will be facing in the NCAAs.