MADISON, N.J. – Matthew Michibata broke the all-time program record for career doubles wins to highlight another impressive day for the TCNJ men's tennis team Saturday at the ITA Northeast Regional championship.
Michibata and
Harrison Maitland-Carter breezed through their two opponents to advance to the semifinals, where they faced off against a team from Vassar Sunday for a spot in the final and an automatic qualifying bid to the ITA Cup. Michibata also advanced to the quarterfinals of the singles championship.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Michibata and Maitland-Carter had little trouble dismantling their second-round opponents from Rochester, posting a quick 8-0 shutout to advance to the quarterfinals and give Michibata the record-breaker.
- Michibata and Maitland-Carter again convincingly booked passage to the semifinals with an 8-3 rout of a 5-8 seed from RPI.
- Alberto Thomas and Aayush Kishore came through with a massive effort, knocking off a seeded pairing from NYU, 8-7 (4), in a nail-biting tiebreaker to join their TCNJ counterparts in the quarterfinals. With a chance to set up an all-Lions semi-final, Thomas and Kishore fell just short in an 8-5 loss to Vassar's top tandem.
- Brett Schuster and Asa Wong fell, 8-4, in the second round to a seeded duo from Hamilton.
- In singles play, Michibata rolled into the round of 16 with an 8-0 rout over Lebanon Valley's Adam Warren. He followed up with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Nick Fisher of Hobart to advance to the quarterfinals.
- Senior Derek Jordan defeated Hamilton's Anson Anderson, 8-4, before falling short in the round of 16 against Sean Pesin of Hobart and William Smith.
- Also advancing to the round of 16 was Kishore, who beat Dimitris Binopoulos of Union, 8-6. However, his run was unfortunately cut short in three sets against Andy Zhu of RPI.
NOTES
- Michibata's 70th career doubles win surpassed the mark held for over 15 years by assistant coach and TCNJ Hall of Famer Michael Klimchak '08.
UP NEXT
- Singles quarterfinals: Michibata vs. Rumaish Khastgir (NYU)
- Doubles semifinals: Michibata/Maitland-Carter vs. Nolan Kubiak/Ethan Mantell (Vassar)
