The Hopkins men’s tennis team defeated Washington & Lee 9-0 in Virginia on Sunday. The Blue Jays, currently ranked 10th, improve to 3-2 on the season, while W&L experienced their first loss of the season, falling to a record of 5-1.
Freshman Jeremy Dubin and junior Tanner Brown played the first set of the match, achieving an 8-1 win over Washington & Lee (W&L). Dubin described the team’s goals for the rest of the season. “Our goal is to win a national championship, and we know we are capable of doing that. Between now and May, we have to put in our hardest work to make that happen.”
Sophomore Nicholas Garcia and junior Noah Joachim then beat their opponents 8-3 in the second game. “In the past our doubles play has been our Achilles heel, so basically this season we have been focusing on improving that aspect of our team the most. We returned two doubles teams from last season and added a team of freshmen this season and our doubles has never been stronger,” Garcia said.
He outlined the team’s priorities for the rest of the season. “Our goals this season are to win our conference tournament, get into the NCAA tournament and make a run to win a championship. I'm looking forward to traveling with my teammates and continuing to improve and bond as a team,” Garcia said.
Freshmen Michael Buxbaum and Emerson Walsh were the last doubles pair to play. Currently ranked fifth in the nation, the two freshmen fought hard to win 9-8 against the 10th ranked pair from W&L, giving the Blue Jays a 3-0 lead.
“After some early success at indoors and at W&L this past weekend, we believe we have a great shot at winning NCAA’s this year. We have some great leaders on the team and we're all very excited for the rest of the season,” Walsh said.
Tanner Brown returned to the court to play singles, in which he played just two sets, dominating 6-1 over W&L in each. It was his 77th career total win, including singles and doubles, which moves him into 11th place in the Hopkins program’s history for most career wins.
Dubin also clinched a win in his singles match in straight sets, beating his opponent 6-2 in both. Sophomore Chris Jou earned a 6-2, 6-3 win over W&L, bringing Hopkins’ overall lead to 6-0. Buxbaum followed with a close win, winning 7-6 after four deuces in the first set, and 6-4 in the second. Junior Sam Weissler took three sets to beat his opponent, winning 6-2, 4-6 and 6-4.
Junior Ben Hwang closed out the match with an exciting come-from-behind 0-6, 7-6, 7-5 win. “We just came off a strong run at National Indoors last weekend placing 2nd and currently are just working on things we had trouble with during the tournament,” Hwang said. “Our doubles is looking pretty good so now we're just focusing more on singles and the finalized lineup for the rest of the season. We have a pretty top heavy schedule, meaning the majority of our toughest matches are early on in the season. For me personally, I'm just looking to maintain my regional (4) and national rankings (15) so that I'll make it to the NCAA individual tournament at the end of the year. Of course, the biggest thing we're looking forward to is the NCAA team championships at the end of the season. After our performance this past week, we've definitely solidified ourselves as national contenders and are looking to make a strong run come May.”
The Blue Jays return to action on March 21 as they take on the 23rd-ranked Bates Bobcats in Fredericksburg, Va. at 4 p.m.
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