March 6, 2006
FAYETTEVILLE, NC - The 30th-ranked Johns Hopkins men's tennis team fell 5-2 to Methodist College in its season-opening match on Saturday. The Blue Jays return to action with their home opener on Sunday, March 12 against Salisbury at 1:00 pm.
Methodist opened the match with a sweep at doubles, taking an early 1-0 lead in the match. Sophomore Chanont Vasoontara and junior Hillen Smith fell at #1 to Keith Criscoe and Chris Fletcher 8-3. In the #2 spot, sophomore Rafael Roberti and junior Nick Kennedy dropped a tough 8-6 match to David Hardy and Sam Miller. Sophomore Matthew Naftilan and freshman Larry Wei lost to Mike Layton and Matt Seigel 8-4 at the #3 spot.
In singles play, Smith and Naftilan won at the #3 and #6 spots respectively for the Jays. Smith defeated Layton easily, 6-1, 6-0. Naftilan beat Siegel in a tough three-set match. Siegel won the first set 6-4, but Naftilan battled back to win the second and third by identical 6-4 scores. Wei lost a tough three-set match at the #5 spot to Miller. Miller won the first set 6-3, before Wei won the second 6-1 to force a third. Miller bounced back to win the third 6-3 and take the point for Methodist.
Criscoe defeated Vasoontara 6-4, 6-1 at the #1 position. Roberti fell at the #2 spot to Fletcher in two sets, 6-1, 6-1. Sophomore Kevin Ma lost his match at #4 to David Hardy 7-5, 6-1.
