Men’s Tennis battles to maintain 5th rank

With their three matches on Saturday and a sweep on Tuesday, the Hopkins men’s tennis team maintained their fifth rank, progressing to a 9-4 overall record.

As Hopkins traveled to two different states, the Saturday matches proved to be no walk in the park, as the Blue Jays dropped two tough matches against Emory and Chestnut Hill after a win against Centennial Conference opponent Ursinus. In Atlanta, the starters opened strongly, taking a firm 2-1 lead over Emory in doubles. At first doubles, freshmen Michael Buxbaum and Emerson Walsh struggled, losing 8-2, but juniors Tanner Brown and Erik Lim were able to prevail with an impressive 8-4 win at second doubles. Sophomore Nicholas Garcia and junior Noah Joachim followed up at third, defeating their opponents by a score of 8-4.

The match took an unfortunate turn in singles for the Jays, who lost all six matches. Freshman Jeremy Dubin, Brown, Buxbaum and Lim suffered losses in the fourth, third, first and sixth singles respectively, dropping both of their sets. Garcia dominated in the first set of his fifth singles match, winning 6-2, but was unable to close out, losing the following sets 6-4, 6-2. In the second singles, Brown also battled to take the first set 6-4, but fell short, dropping the next two sets 6-1, 6-3.

The team played Ursinus and Chestnut Hill in Collegeville, Pa. With the starters playing in Atlanta, the players had to play two singles and two doubles matches each, which took a heavy toll on the players’ bodies. The weather provided another challenge.

“The main difficulties we had were the windy conditions,” senior German Gonzalez said. Even under the difficult situation, the Blue Jays proved to be too much for Ursinus. At third doubles, sophomore Chris Jou and junior Jensen Reiter crushed their opponents in an 8-2 victory by aggressively attacking and taking advantage of slow returns. Senior Joonas Karjalainen and sophomore Nathan Law had a slow start at second doubles, struggling with the wind, and took an 8-3 loss.

“Our service returns were floating too high in the wind,” Karjalainen said.

At first doubles, senior Jeremy Schwartz and Gonzalez fought their way to an 8-6 win to give Hopkins a 2-1 lead.

The match became an uphill battle for Hopkins after Reiter was forced to retire at first singles with an injury. However, they stayed strong, sweeping the rest of the singles matches. Jou struggled with pain in his shoulder in the beginning of the second singles match, giving up the first set 6-0.

“Starting in the second set, I just went back to the basics. I focused on putting the balls deep in the court,” Jou said, who came back to win with set scores of 6-2, 10-8. At fourth, Law dominated with a 6-3, 6-2 win. Schwartz easily defeated his opponent at third, winning 6-2, 6-3. At fifth and sixth respectively, Gonzalez and Karjalainen breezed through their matches, Gonzalez winning 6-2, 6-1, and Karjalainen giving up just one game with a 6-1, 6-0 win.

In their first ever meeting with Division II team Chestnut Hill, Hopkins gave up three points due to injuries to Reiter and Jou, who were forced to retire in a doubles match and two singles matches. Issues with the windy conditions continued for Karjalainen and Law, who dropped the second doubles match by 8-5. Gonzalez and Schwartz were badly matched, playing against much taller opponents, and took a tough 8-1 loss. Starting the singles bracket, the Blue Jays had already fallen to an unrecoverable 5-0 deficit, but remained resilient, winning three of the four remaining matches. Gonzalez was dominant at fifth with a 6-1, 6-1 victory. At third, Schwartz struggled to a 6-2, 6-2 loss, but Karjalainen defeated his opponent at sixth by 6-2, 6-2. Law squeezed in a tight victory in the last match of the day over three sets with a 7-6, 4-6, 10-6 score at fourth.

On Tuesday, Hopkins played a conference match against Franklin & Marshall and stomped over the visitors with a 9-0 sweep. At second doubles, Dubin and Lim gave no leeway with an 8-1 win. Buxbaum and Walsh followed with an impressive win of 8-4 at first. Garcia and freshman Jeff Mackenzie were just as relentless, closing out doubles with an 8-5 victory. In singles, Buxbaum swept his opponent with a 6-4, 6-3 win at first, and at second, Hwang clinched the match by winning 6-4, 6-4. The Blue Jays continued to dominate, with a 7-5, 6-2 win at fourth by junior Sam Weissler. Garcia battled to close out a tight match at third, winning 7-6, 6-2. With the match already decided, the fifth and sixth matches were played by eight-game pro sets, and Walsh and Mackenzie, respectively, earned wins of 8-1, 8-3.

This brought the team to an undefeated 4-0 record in the Centennial Conference. Hopkins will look to improve their record at Haverford on April 12.