WALTHAM, Mass. – The Brandeis University men's tennis team, ranked 30th in Division III, picked up its first win over a ranked opponent since 2011 today with a 5-4 victory over 27th-ranked Trinity (Conn.) College on the Rieger Tennis Courts. The Judges improved to 9-5 with their first-ever win over Trinity in 10 meetings. The Bantams fall to 7-4 and see a four-match winning streak snapped.
Trinity jumped out to a 2-1 lead after doubles action. Dan Carpenter and David Myers rolled at No. 1, 8-2, while Ilya Levin and Rutendo Matingo earned an 8-4 win at No. 3. Brandeis got on the board at the second spot, where rookie Brian Granoff (Miami, Fla. / Gulliver Prep) and junior Michael Secular (Bronx, N.Y./Plant, Fla.) earned a late service break for an 8-5 win.
In singles action, the Bantams extended their lead to 3-1 when Ford Traff knocked of Brandeis junior Alec Siegel (Deerfield, Ill./Deerfield) at No. 5, 6-1, 7-5. Traff erased a 4-1 deficit in the second set. Brandeis got on the board again at first singles, where Granoff, ranked 11th in the Northeast Region, upset Trinity's third-ranked Dan Carpenter, 6-2, 6-3. Brandeis tied the match at fourth singles, where rookie Ryan Bunis (Groton, Mass./Groton-Dunstable) topped Mysioka Mbithi, 6-2, 6-4, in the final straight-set win of the day.
The Judges took the lead and won the match with a pair of three-setters. At No. 6, Secular won the first set from Ilya Levin, 6-4. Levin knotted it up in the second, 6-3. With two early breaks, Secular jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the third set, but Levin rallied to win the next three in a row with a pair of service breaks of his own. Secular recorded his third break of the set in the eighth game and held in the ninth to complete a 6-3 win for Brandeis's fourth set.
Moments later, sophomore Danny Lubarsky (Cleveland, Ohio/Hawken School) clinched the win from the third position on the ladder. Lubarsky split the first two sets with Rutendo Matingo, 6-4, 2-6. In the third, the pair traded holds in the first six games of the set before Lubarsky won three in a row, breaking Matingo in the eighth game to complete the comeback victory for his team with a 6-3 final set.
In the final match of the day, Trinity's Ned Mandel overcame a rolled ankle and an early deficit in the second set to defeat Brandeis rookie Michael Arguello (Brentwood, Tenn./Brentwood), 4-6, 7-6, 10-6. The score of the second-set tiebreaker was 8-6, and the third set was a 10-point pro set.
Brandeis returns to action next Friday, April 18, at 28th-ranked Tufts at 3 p.m. Trinity hosts No. 8 Middlebury tomorrow at noon.