Stein, Rupasinghe advance to NCAA doubles quarterfinals
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| Amrit Rupasinghe ’10 (left) and Ben Stein ’09 made the quarterfinals in doubles, securing All-America honors. (Photos by Suzy Preston) |
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Stein and Rupasinghe advanced to Saturday’s quarterfinals, where they will meet Washington University duo Charlie Cutler and Chris Hoeland, the No. 2 seed in the field. By making the quarterfinals the Bobcat pair secured All-America honors, becoming the fifth and sixth Bates men’s tennis All-Americans.
The match was quite evenly matched, with only one game separating both throughout the first set, until the Bobcats extended their 5-4 advantage to 6-4.
Gaines and DeSantis took Bates to a tiebreaker in the second set, where the Bobcats took immediate control, building a 5-2 lead. A service ace by Stein clinched the victory for the home team, Bates’ lone representation at the six-day NCAA Championships (Stein was the alternate from the Northeast Region in the singles field.)
The quarterfinals and semifinals of the Singles Championship are slated for 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. tomorrow, followed by the doubles quarterfinals at 3 p.m.
Sunday will feature the singles finals at 12 p.m., followed by the doubles semifinals at 2 p.m. and the doubles finals at 4 p.m.
Singles, Doubles Fields Narrowed
Seven out of eight seeds were eliminated from the 32-player field Friday as the NCAA Division III Men’s Tennis Singles Championship was reduced to eight players in two rounds.
No. 1 seed John Watts of Washington University in St. Louis advanced to Saturday’s quarterfinals with victories over Jared Kamel of UC Santa Cruz and Andrew Lee of Middlebury.
Watts will face Michael Klimchak of The College of New Jersey in Saturday’s quarterfinals, which begin at 9 a.m. The other quarterfinal matchups will pit: Chris Fletcher of Methodist vs. Michael Greenberg of Kenyon; Stephen Sullivan of Bowdoin vs. Spencer Feldman of Trinity (Conn.) College; and Charlie Cutler of Washington University vs. Filip Marinkovic of Middlebury College.
In doubles play, Stein and Rupasinghe will meet Cutler and Hoeland of the newly minted NCAA team champion, the Bears of Washington University in St. Louis.
Other quarterfinal doubles matchups on Saturday will pit Middlebury’s Marinkovic and Andrew Thomson vs. Andy Bryan and Charlie Paukert of Gustavus Adolphus; UC Santa Cruz’s Kamel and Marc Vartabedian against John Mook and Eddie Glidewell of Christopher Newport; and Guillaume Schils and Larry Wang of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps vs. Randy Loden and Kaz Murata of Mary Washington.
The quarterfinals and semifinals of the Singles Championship are slated for 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. tomorrow, followed by the doubles quarterfinals at 3 p.m.
Sunday will feature the singles finals at 12 p.m., followed by the doubles semifinals at 2 p.m. and the doubles finals at 4 p.m.