April 13, 2008

Box Score

BALTIMORE, MD - The #22 Johns Hopkins men's tennis team defeated visiting #12 Salisbury 6-3 on Sunday afternoon for its fifth straight win and 10th in last 12 outings. The Blue Jays improve their record to 10-5 on the season while the Sea Gulls drop to 15-3. Senior Joe Vasoontara (Bangkok, Thailand/Loomis Chaffee) is now just one win shy of 100 total wins (singles and doubles) for his career.

The Blue Jays took a 3-0 lead by sweeping the doubles matches. Vasoontara and freshman Casey Blythe (Louisville, KY/Saint Xavier) won at first, beating Brendan Kincaid and Scott Burtzlaff 8-2. At second, Freshman Andrew Wang (Sparta, NJ/Sparta) and sophomore David Maldow (Jericho, NY/Jericho) picked up an 8-4 win over Matthew Nicholson and Evan Thomas. Seniors Rafael Roberti (Summit, NJ/Summit) and Matt Naftilan (Nashville, TN/Montgomery Bell Academy) beat Andrew Nottage and Marcus Robinson 9-7 at third.

In singles play, Hopkins claimed the match with wins at first, third and sixth. Maldow beat Kincaid 6-3, 6-2 at first while Nicholson defeated Vasoontara at second, 6-4, 6-0. Wang lost just two games in beating Burtzlaff 6-1, 6-1 at third. Thomas won at fourth with a three-set win over Blythe and David Lupinetti beat sophomore Peter Vale (Haverford, PA/Episcopal Academy) 7-6, 7-5 at fifth. And at sixth, Roberti won 6-2, 6-4 over Sasha Felikson.

Hopkins returns to Centennial Conference play on Tuesday, April 15 with a crucial match at Haverford. Slated to begin at 3:30 pm, it is a rematch of the 2007 Centennial Conference Championship. It is also a match up of the only two unbeatens left in the conference.