Men’s Tennis Completes Perfect NEWMAC Record With Win at Coast Guard
NEW LONDON, Conn. – MIT's men's tennis team completed another perfect season in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference play this afternoon as the No. 28 Engineers downed the U.S. Coast Guard Academy by a final of 8-1. With the win MIT secured both the hosting privileges and the top seed at the NEWMAC championships that will be held next weekend.
MIT (13-3, 5-0 NEWMAC) took what proved to be an insurmountable lead in the doubles matches, winning all three by the same 8-4 score. MIT's No. 1 doubles team of junior Matthew Skalak (Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.) and sophomore Edwin Zhang (Falls Church, Va.) ran their winning streak to eight in a row with their win over the Coast Guard team of Nick Martin and Greg Mitchell. The other two Engineer squads followed suit as MIT built the 3-0 lead.
In singles play MIT picked up straight sets victories in four of its five wins. At No. 1, Zhang came out on top over Mitchell, 6-1, 6-4, while junior Brian Oldfield (St. Thomas, Virgin Islands) dropped just two games in a 6-2, 6-0 decision over Martin. The Engineers also took the bottom two flights in straight sets as Skalak won by a 6-3, 6-2 score at No. 5 over Matt Faha and junior Tymor Hamamasy (New York, N.Y.) taking a 6-1, 6-2 win over Jon Lightner at No. 6.
Two matches went to three sets during the competition. Coast Guard (10-5, 3-1 NEWMAC) picked up its point in the No. 2 match where Josh Fisher won a close battle with junior Larry Pang (Torrance, Calif.), 7-5 (5), 3-6, 10-5. Freshman Eugene Oh (Alpharetta, Ga.) was the winner at No. 4 for the Engineers, battling back from a first set loss to get the 1-6, 6-4, 10-6 win over Blake Maurer.
MIT will tune up for the NEWMAC Championship by taking on No 7 Middlebury College on Wednesday at 3:45 p.m.
