Stevens Wins E8 Men's Tennis Championship
Danny Vohden
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (May 4, 2014) – The Stevens Institute of Technology men's tennis team blanked Ithaca College 5-0 Sunday to capture a fifth-straight Empire 8 Championship, and its sixth in the last seven years.
With the win, Stevens (13-11) has also clinched an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Individually, sophomore Matthew Heinirch was named Most Valuable Player of the tournament for the second straight year.
Freshmen
Charles Drake and
Michael Feldman got the Ducks off to a good start with an 8-2 win at third doubles over sophomore Chris Hayes and senior Griffin Reid, followed by an 8-3 win at No. 2 for sophomores
Ben Foran and
Tyler Tisdale over freshman Wes Davis and sophomore Zach Passman.
Ithaca's senior David Anderson and junior Justin Levine attempted an answer at first doubles by storming out to a 3-1 lead before extending it to 7-3 over Heinrich and freshman
Antonio Perich. The Stevens duo refused to go do down though, rallying to win 9-7 to give the Ducks a commanding 3-0 headed into singles.
Heinrich followed up his doubles comeback with a convincing 6-0, 6-3 win over Reid at first singles before Feldman clinched the championship with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Davis at No. 3. Due to championship rules, the teams did not finish the reamaining four singles matches.
The MVP Heinrich polished-off an undrafted conference season with by going 4-0 combined in singles and doubles during the championship. As a team, the win marked the 43
rd straight over an Empire 8 opponent for Stevens.
"I am very proud of our guys winning our fifth consecutive conference tournament," head coach
Steve Gachko said. "Ithaca competed very well as always. We are excited to put in some hard work this week as we head into NCAA's next weeked."
With the regular season now behind them, the Ducks will await to hear their seeding for the NCAA tournament which starts this week. A season-ago, the Ducks reached the round of 16 for the first time in school history.
Heinrich/Perich (STE) def. Andersen/Levine (ITH) 9-7
Foran/Tisdale (STE) def. Passman/Davis (ITH) 8-3
Drake/Feldman (STE) def. Reid/Hayes (ITH) 8-2
Heinrich (STE) def. Reid (ITH) 6-0, 6-3
Foran (STE) vs. Passman (ITH) unfinished
Feldman (STE) def. Andersen (ITH) 6-1, 6-2
Drake (STE) vs. Davis (ITH) unfinished
Perich (STE) vs. Hayes (ITH) unfinished
Tisdale (STE) vs. Levine (ITH) unfinished