EWING, N.J. – The No. 39 TCNJ men's tennis team wrapped up the regular season with a hard-fought 4-3 setback at the hands of in-state rival Stevens on Friday afternoon.
The Lions (14-5) saw their winning streak end at nine consecutive dual matches as the 44
th-ranked Ducks rallied from a 3-0 deficit to claim the top-50 tilt.
Faris Shehata was the lone double winner for TCNJ, which swept the doubles courts but was unable to claim the clincher it needed as Stevens (11-5) ran off the last four singles flights.
An early break of serve was enough to propel
Harrison Maitland-Carter and
Asa Wong past Samvid Andhare and Max-William Kanz, 6-3, in the number one doubles flight.
Meanwhile,
Nathan Chan and
Alberto Thomas broke at 3-3 and reeled off the last three games, including another break of serve, to hand Ian Batra and Tristan Wroe a 6-3 defeat at number two.
In the third flight,
Sidd Arudi and
Faris Shehata went to a tiebreaker against Elias Alkio and Dhaivik Chenemilla, eventually pulling out an 8-6 thriller to complete the doubles sweep.
Brett Schuster staked the Lions to a 2-0 lead with a 6-0, 6-0 double-bagel demolition of Alkio at number six singles. Shehata then polished off a 6-1, 6-4 victory against Chenemilla at number four, which pushed the blue and gold out to a 3-0 advantage.
Despite needing just one more point to clinch, the Lions conceded the first set on all four of the remaining singles courts and needed a rally on one of them to dispatch the Ducks.
Stevens won in straight sets at number three singles to get on the board, then pulled even with wins on the top two courts.
That left it to the fifth flight, where
Aidan Twamley came back from down 7-5, 5-1 to force a tiebreaker in the second set before Wroe pulled out a 7-5 breaker to seal the comeback for Stevens.
NOTES
- Friday marked the sixth 4-3 decision of the spring for TCNJ; all but one of the Lions' dual losses have been by that score line
- Maitland-Carter took over sole possession of 5th on the program's all-time charts with his 134th career combined win; it was the 75th doubles win of his career
- Thomas moved into a tie for 8th all-time with his 118th career victory
- Schuster joined the all-time top-20 with his 47th career singles win
UP NEXT
- The Lions head out to America's Dairyland to take on Wisconsin-Whitewater for the WIAC championship next Saturday, May 2
