CHC Tops Post in 1st Rd of 2024 CACC Men's Tennis Championship
Courtesy of Chestnut Hill College Athletics
WATERBURY, Conn. (April 27, 2024) -- Noah Cutting's come-from-behind effort in singles play advanced the Chestnut Hill College men's Tennis team to the Central Atlantic collegiate conference Men's Tennis Championship match for the third consecutive year as the Griffins defeated Post University in the opening round of the CACC playoffs, 4-2 Saturday afternoon in Beacon Falls, Connecticut.
The Griffins improve to 10-8-1 while the Eagles end their season at 5-12.
Cutting and his #1 singles opponent Gustavo Kerber split their first two sets, with Kerber winning the opener 6-4 and Cutting evening the match with a 6-3 win in the second match. Kerber was on the brink of winning the third set when Cutting rallied from deficits of 5-4 and 6-5 to force a seven-point tiebreaker. The senior staved off match point several times in the tiebreaker before pulling ahead and winning it 10-8 to win the match 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (10-8) and give the Griffins a 4-2 win.
Chestnut Hill started off the day by winning the doubles point to start off with a 1-0 lead. Tiago Lima and Joao Sousa wasted no time in winning #3 doubles, 6-1 over Ivan Kolchanov and Tobias Strauss. The #2 doubles match however went to the Eagles, leaving the doubles point to be decided by Cutting and his #1 doubles partner Antonio Franquis. Cutting and Franquis secured a 6-2 win over Kerber and Dante Despontin for the win.
The Eagles evened the score at 1-1 with a win at #5 singles as Josh Cronje defeated Siddharth Malik 6-3, 6-3. before Lima defeated Despontin, 6-3, 6-3 at #3 singles to put the Griffins back ahead 2-1 in the match. Kolchanov needed three sets to defeat Pedro Vicente, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 at #6 singles to tie the match at 2-2.
Sousa's match at #4 singles against Niklas Langenfeld also came down to a third set. Langenfeld held a one set lead in the after winning 6-4 and was ahead 4-2 against Sousa in the second set. Sousa, however, would rattle off the next 10 points of the match to turn a 4-2 deficit into a 6-4 win in set two before sweeping set three, 6-0, putting the Griffins on the brink of a trip to the championship.
It came down to the final two matches, the #1 and #2 singles contests. Both matches were in the third set when Sousa put the Griffins ahead. Cutting and Kerber had split their first two sets as had Franquis and Anton Andersson. Kerber was on the verge of winning at #1 before Cutting staged his come-from behind efforts.
Meanwhile Franquis trailed in the third set 5-4 before winning two straight games to lead 6-5 in the waning moments of their match. Before that could finish, however, Cutting pulled off his final come-from-behind rally to take the 31 singles match and send the Griffins to the conference championship yet again.
The championship match will take place at Chestnut Hill College on the CHC tennis Courts on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Chestnut Hill will face top seed and defending CACC Champion Jefferson University. The match will begin at 12:00 p.m.
ABOUT THE CACC
The Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference is an NCAA Division II Conference composed of 12 institutions in Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. The member institutions are Bloomfield College, University of Bridgeport, Caldwell University, Chestnut Hill College, Dominican (N.Y.) University, Felician University, Georgian Court University, Goldey-Beacom College, Holy Family University, Post University, Thomas Jefferson University, and Wilmington University.