The Basics
• Score: #20 Johns Hopkins-7, #32 Swarthmore-2
• Records: JHU (17-1, 7-1 CC) • SC (14-6, 7-1 CC)
• Location: Baltimore, MD • JHU Tennis Courts
• The Short Story: The 20^th-ranked Johns Hopkins men's tennis team beat 32^nd-ranked Swarthmore, 7-2, to clinch the top seed in the Centennial Conference Tournament.
 
How it Happened
• The Blue Jays rallied from a 2-1 deficit by sweeping the singles matches to secure the win. The Garnet took the first point of the match when Graham Hadesman and Max Pogorelov beat senior Ryan Hellinger and junior Alexander Kernagis 8-2 at third doubles.
• Sophomores Daniel Ardila and Thomas Yu answered with an 8-3 win over John Nichols-Daly and Grant Dill, the third-ranked doubles team in the region, at first. Rushil Patel and Charley Force, ranked 10^th in the region, put Swarthmore back on top with an 8-6 win over sophomore Marco Azar and graduate student Vishnu Joshi at second.
• The comeback began at second singles when Joshi beat Kevin Jiang 6-3, 6-1 to tie the match at 2-2. First featured a battle of two of the top-five singles players in the region and it was Yu that came out on top. He beat Force 6-2, 6-1 to give Hopkins its first lead, 3-2. It's a lead the Blue Jays would not relinquish. Senior Brian Wang followed with a 7-5, 6-2 defeat of Phil Rehwinkel at fifth.
• Azar clinched the win at sixth singles with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Josiah Myers-Lipton. The Blue Jays still needed one more win however to lock-up the top seed in the conference tournament. Junior Andrew Tran did the honors with a 6-2, 7-5 victory at third over Patel. Ardila capped the win with a 6-1, 7-6 (5) win over Nichols-Daly at fourth.
 
What it Means
• After Haverford beat Gettysburg earlier in the day, Hopkins entered the match needing to beat Swarthmore by a score of 6-3, or better, to earn the number one seed in the tournament.
• JHU is now 31-36 all-time against Swarthmore and has won the last eight meetings.
• The Blue Jays will be the number one seed in the Centennial Conference Tournament for the 13^th time. In addition, this is JHU's 14^th regular season Centennial Conference title.
• Yu tied the program record for singles' wins (24) and total wins (47) I a season.  
• Joshi now ranks eighth in program history with 54 career singles wins. He is also just the ninth player in program history with at least 50 singles wins and 50 doubles wins. 
 
Up Next
• Hopkins will take on the winner of the first-round match between Washington College and Franklin & Marshall on Saturday, May 7 in the semifinals.
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