SWARTHMORE, PA – Johns Hopkins lost a tight match to host and 11
th-ranked Swarthmore, 5-3, in the Centennial Conference Championship match Sunday afternoon. The Blue Jays fall to 14-6 while the Garnet improve to 21-1.
The Garnet took a 2-0 lead, but the Blue Jays prevented a doubles sweep with a win at number three. Purushotham Koduri and Michael Melnikov grabbed the early lead for Swarthmore with an 8-3 win over
Pranav Gadiraju and
Allen Gong at number one doubles. Andres Fente and Rushil Patel then won a close 8-7 (4) match at two over
Daniel Ardila and
Marco Azar to put Swarthmore up 2-0.
Chakor Rajendra and
Hanyu Liu answered with a hard-fought win of their own, beating Max Lindstrom and Aadhi Raja 8-7 (5) at three.
Lindstrom put the Garnet up 3-1 with a 6-2, 6-1 win versus Rajendra at number two singles. Liu responded with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Kevin Jiang at three to make it a 3-2 match. Melnikov then came from behind to win 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 at one over Ardila to put the Garnet up 4-2. Azar kept the Blue Jays in the match and cut the deficit to one with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Winston Zhang at five. LalithAditya Suresh then clinched the win for the Garnet when he beat Gadiraju 6-3, 6-2 at six. Gong and Rishi Verma had split sets at four and Gong was up 2-1 in the third when the match ended.
Hopkins now awaits a possible at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament. The 2024 NCAA Championship Bracket is scheduled to be announced on Monday, May 6 at 12:30 pm.
