The No. 9 Washington University men’s tennis team suffered a 5-4 loss to No. 3 Emory University in the University Athletic Association (UAA) championship on Sunday in Cleveland, Ohio. With the win, Emory claims its 18th-straight UAA championship and 19th overall.
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The Bears won two of three doubles matches to take the lead heading into singles play for the 15th-straight match. Sophomore Charlie Cutler and sophomore Chris Hoeland fell at No. 1 doubles, 8-3, to #3 Michael Goodwin and Yoji Masuoka to put Emory up 1-0.
Washington U. (18-4) tied the match at 1-1 as junior Charlie Howard and freshman John Watts posted a convincing 8-2 win over Michael Kaufman and Mark Boren at No. 3. The win for Howard and Watts was their 12th straight, and improved their record to 15-3.
The biggest win of the day came at No. 2 doubles, as sophomores Trevis Bowman and Nirmal Choradia posted an 8-6 win Oliver Ropp and Hardy Ehlers. Bowman and Choradia, who advanced to the ITA Central Regional finals in the fall, were coming off an 8-3 loss yesterday against Carnegie Mellon. The win was the 18th of the season for Bowman and Choradia, moving them into a tie for the team lead.
Cutler and Watts continued their impressive play by defeating two top-five players in singles. Cutler defeated Goodwin, who entered the match ranked third in Division, 6-2, 6-1, at No. 1. Watts followed suit with a 6-3, 6-1 victory at No. 2 over #5 Masuoka. Boren recorded the first singles victory for Emory cruising past Howard at No. 5, 6-3, 6-2, to trim the Bears lead to 4-2.
Emory (18-8) would not go away as the Eagles would capture three-consecutive three-set victories to seal the 5-4 win. Loop defeated Hoeland, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 at No. 3, Ehlers rebounded from a tough first-set loss to defeat freshman Danny Levy 6-7, 6-4, 7-5 at No. 4, and Kaufman posted a 2-6, 6-1, 6-1 win over Choradia at No. 6.
Brackets and pairings for the 32nd Annual NCAA Division III Men’s Tennis Championship will be announced on Monday, April 30 at 7 p.m. on www.ncaasports.com . Washington University will serve as the host of the final eight on Tue.-Thu., May 15-17, at Dwight Davis Tennis Center, while the singles and doubles tournaments will take place Fri.-Sun., May 18-20.