#3 Eagles, Garnet Advance to Regional Final
SWARTHMORE, Pa. -- The third-ranked Emory (Ga.) Eagles defeated the Baruch (N.Y.) College Bearcats 5-0 while host Swarthmore Garnet also picked up a 5-0 win over The College of New Jersey Lions in second-round action of the 2007 NCAA Division III men's tennis championships Saturday afternoon at Edwin Faulkner Courts.
Emory (19-8), the defending national champion, and Swarthmore (7-9), a quarterfinalist in 2006, will play Sunday, May 6 at 12:00 p.m. on Faulkner Courts for a spot in the national quarterfinals, set for Tuesday, May 15 at Washington University of St. Louis.
In the morning match, the Eagles No.1 doubles' team, Michael Good win (Rockville, Md. / Richard Montgomery) and Yoji Masuoka (Tokyo, Japan / Saddlebrook Prep., Fla) rolled past Baruch's Emanuel Imperial (Staten Island, NY / St. Joseph by the Sea) and Timmy Leon (Flushing, N.Y. / Francis-Lewis) 8-0 while No. 3 team from Emory, Chris Jordan (Granger, Ind. / Penn) and Hardy Ehlers (San Diego, Calif. / Francis Parker) won by the same 8-0 margin over Baruch's Dimitru Pitu (Whitestone, N.Y. / Holy Cross) and Ramon Shane-Johnson (Kingston, Jamaica / Middle College HS). The Eagles completed the sweep of doubles' play when the No. 2 pairing of Michael Kaufman (Hills, Mich. / North Farmington) and Oliver Lopp (Hilden, Germany / Diettrich-Bonhoeffer) won 7-2 over the Bearcats' tandem of Alex Sokol (Staten Island, N.Y. / Susan Wagner) and Michalis Zevlakis (Astoria, N.Y. / Flushing).
Goodwin and Masuoka, ranked #3 and #6 in the country respectively in singles, rolled to identical 6-0, 6-0 victories to clinch the match for the Eagles. Goodwin closed out Imperial in the No. 1 match and Masuoka took care of Leon at No. 2 in a tidy 25 minutes.
In the second match, Swarathmore (7-9) took an early 3-0 lead after doubles. Willy Nolan (Portland, Ore. / Grant) and Marc Greenburg (Paradise Valley, Ariz. / Phoenix Country Day) picked up the first point for the Garnet with an 8-5 win at No. 3 over the Lions' Jeremy Eckardt (Belle Mead, N.J. / Montgomery) and Willy Daly (Hillsborough, N.J. / Hillsborough). Swarthmore's Brian Nalitt (Short Hills, N.J. / Millburn) and Kevin Shaughnessy (South Kingstown, R.I. / South Kingstown) out-lasted TCNJ's Eric Ferriere (Branchville, N.J. / Kittantinny) and Corey Ball (Voorhees, N.J. / Eastern) at No. 2 by a score of 9-7. The No. 1 Garnet pair, Jon Reiss (New York, N.Y. / Stuyvesant) and Jonathan Lo (Honolulu, Hawaii / Iolaui School) completed the sweep with an 8-6 over Michael Klimchak (Clark, N.J. / Arthur L. Johnson) and Roger Mosteller (Medford Lakes, N.J. / Sewanee).
The Garnet held the momentum into singles' play as Nolan and Nalitt, both freshmen, picked up straight set victories to seal the win for Swarthmore. Nolan won his ninth straight match, defeating Ball 6-0, 6-3 at No. 4 while Nalitt downed Ferriere 6-0, 6-2 at No. 3 for his seventh straight victory.
Swarthmore avenged an early-season 8-1 loss to the Lions, advancing to the regional finals for the second straight season--the Garnet defeated Mary Washington 4-2 on May 7, 2006 to make the quarterfinals.
Baruch completes its season with an overall record of 12-5 while the College of New Jersey finished with a record of 11-3.
#3 Emory 5, Baruch 0