No. 1 Emory Edges No. 2 Men's Tennis at ITA Indoor Championships
ST. PETER, MN - The No. 2 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's tennis team dropped a tight 5-4 decision to the No. 1 Emory Eagles in the title match of the ITA Indoor National Team Indoor Championships on Sunday. CMS held advantages of 2-1 after doubles, and then 4-1, before Emory came back to knot things up at 4-4. With just the No. 5 singles match remaining on the courts. Matthew Jacobs (CMC) and Emory's Andrew Harrington created an epic finish to an important early season battle between the two team rivals, with Harrington edging Jacobs in a final set tie-break to give the Eagles their third consecutive Indoor crown.
The Stags won the top two doubles matches to open a 2-1 lead heading to singles play. CMS won an impressive seven of nine doubles matches on the weekend against some of the nation's best competition. Sophomore Nikolai Parodi (CMC) and fershman Jack Katzman (CMC) won decisively at the top two singles spots to give CMS a 4-1 before the Eagles began their comeback.With the dual match tied at 4-all, Jacobs found himself down a set and clinging to a narrow on-serve lead in the second. His love service break at 4-5 in the second set forced a decisive third and gave the Stags new hope that they would capture the title. Using the momentum from the end of second set, Jacobs held in the first game of the third and then broke serve after saving two game points to take his first lead of the match. However, despite a 30-love lead on his serve in the third game, Jacobs was broken back, and the two players stayed on serve until the tie-break began.
With the Eagles win over the Stags, Emory now holds the only active win streak (four) against CMS in Divsion III. Emory halted the Stags two-year regular season win streak on CMS' home courts in 2016. Then in 2017 Emory defeated CMS in San Antonio in March, and then again in the NCAA Championship match in Chattanooga, TN in May.
The Stags move to 6-1 on the season and will next take the court on Mar. 1 when they play in the 129th Pac Coast Doubles Tournament in La Jolla, Calif. CMS then opens conference play on Sunday, March 4 at Occidental at 10:00 AM, followed by a non-conference match with No. 28 Christopher Newport at 3:00 PM at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center.
#2 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (4) vs. #1 Emory (5)
February 25, 2018 at St. Peter, MN (SwansonTennis Center) - ITA National Team Indoors Championship
Doubles
1. Julian Gordy / Nikolai Parodi (CMS) def. Scott Rubinstein / James Spaulding (EU) 8-4
2. Oscar Burney Jack Katzman (CMS) def. Adrien Bouchet / Max Renke (EU) 8-2
3. Jonathan Jemison / Hayden Cassone (EU) def. Jake Berber / Daniel Park (CMS) 8-5
Singles
1. Nikolai Parodi (CMS) def. Jonathan Jemison (EU) 6-3, 6-2
2. Jack Katzman (CMS) def. Alec Josepher (EU) 6-0, 6-4
3. Adrien Bouchet (EU) def. Oscar Burney (CMS) 3-6, 6-3, 6-0
4. Hayden Cassone (EU) def. Daniel Park (CMS) 6-3, 6-2
5. Andrew Harrington (EU) def. Matthew Jacobs (CMS) 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(3)
6. Scott Rubinstein (EU) def. Avinash Vemuri (CMS) 6-3, 7-5
Order of completion
Doubles: 1, 2, 3
Singles: 1, 2, 4, 3, 6, 5