ITHACA, N.Y. - The No. 1 doubles pairing of
Aiden Drover-Mattinen and
Peter Lohrbach fought back to win their match and give the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) a 3-0 lead over Vassar College in the semifinals of the Liberty League Tournament and the top-seeded Engineers closed out the match by winning the first two singles matches that were completed. With its 5-0 victory, the Engineers, who are ranked No. 22 in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Poll, improve to 14-2 overall and advance to Sunday's final against either second-seeded Skidmore College or third-seeded Hobart College.
After
Eddie Wu and
Suhas Krishnan won 8-5 at No. 3 doubles and
Max Safanov and
Igor Visnevskij captured No. 2 at 8-7 (7-5), Drover Mattinen and Lohrbach found themselves in a tiebreak of their own and down 5-2 and 6-4. The RPI duo answered with four straight points to win 8-6 and give their team a 3-0 lead.
Drover-Mattinen then put the Engineers ahead 4-0 with a 6-4, 6-3 win at No. 1 and Lohrbach clinched it with a 6-1, 6-2 victory at No. 6. Rensselaer, which has now won 12 consecutive matches, was leading in each of the other four singles matches when the contest was ended.
The Brewers finish the season 10-9.