ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. – In the Cardinals' first non-masked dual match in nearly two years, the Wesleyan men's tennis team opened their Spring Break Trip in Florida with a 6-3 triumph over Haverford on Monday morning. Wesleyan improves to 1-0 while Haverford (2-1) suffered their first defeat of the 2021-22 season.
 
It was Haverford who jumped out to an early lead, sporting a 2-1 advantage after doubles play as Peter Anker '22 and Ben Mitchell '24 combined for an 8-0 win over Jason Edmonds and Stefan Johnson at #1 but it was Haverford's teams who won the #3 easily and the #2 match in a tiebreak.
 
Needing wins in four of the six singles matches to claim the overall victory, Wesleyan got right to work early with Anker dropping just one game in a 6-1, 6-0 victory over George Jiang at #1. Mitchell lost just three total games in a dominant 6-2, 6-1 win at #3 over Stefan Johnson as both Mitchell and Anker combined for two wins on the day.
 
The Fords secured a singles point at #5 to knot the team scoring at 3 apiece, with Adam Chow defeating Max Lustgarten '24 6-3, 6-4. Max Lee '22 answered right back for the Cardinals in the #6 match, taking down Abhinav Nallapareddy 7-5, 6-2. For Lee, that win marked his first singles victory in a dual match since his freshman year in 2018-19.
 
With a 4-3 lead, just one point away from the match victory, it was Harry Portnoy '24 with the match-clinching point at #4 as he overcame a 1-0 set deficit, winning the second set 6-1 and taking the third set tiebreak 10-3. Zach Lieb '22 followed with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Andreas Wingert at #2 to secure a fifth singles victory for Wesleyan.
 
The Cardinals continue on tomorrow with a 6:30 PM match against Case Western from the USTA National Campus in Orlando.