Cambridge, Mass. – No. 1 seeded MIT came out of the gate and won all three doubles matches to set the stage for its 5-0 win over No. 3 seed Clark University in the 2012 New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference Men's Tennis Championship this afternoon.
The victory gave the Engineers their 14th straight NEWMAC title in men's tennis. MIT junior Tymor Hamamasy (New York, N.Y.) was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
Clark, which was making its first-ever appearance in the title match, sees its magical season come to an end at 16-4.
Much as it did in its semifinal match against Springfield College, MIT (15-4) took control early in the doubles portion of the contest. Hamamasy and freshman Eugene Oh (Alpharetta, Ga.) scored the first point of the day with an 8-2 victory over the Clark (16-4) team of juniors Dan Hall (Sutton, Mass.) and Phillip Porter (Cortland Manor, N.Y.). Shortly after that match the Engineers found themselves up 2-0 when their No. 2 doubles team of sophomore Curtis Wu (Yorba Linda, Calif.) and junior Larry Pang (Torrance, Calif.) took an 8-3 win over freshmen Zack Goodstein (Columbus, Ohio) and Josh Burger (Fairfield, Conn.).
Clark's No. 1 doubles team of junior Diego Angel (Lima, Peru) and sophomore Dan Stein (Newton, Mass.) held an early, 3-2, lead in their match. The MIT duo of junior Matthew Skalak (Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.) and sophomore Edwin Zhang (Falls Church, Va.) then picked up a key service break as they went on to take a hard-fought, 8-6, win.
In singles play Wu put MIT within a point of the win, defeating freshman Joel Simonson (Waterford, Conn.) in the No. 6 match by a score of 6-1, 6-0. Hamamasy clinched the victory for the Engineers, scoring a 6-1, 6-1 decision over junior Dan Paradee (Gardiner, Maine) in the No. 5 match. With the outcome of the match determined, the final four singles contests were not finished.
Hamamasy had a solid weekend of play for MIT on his way to the Most Outstanding Player honor. He finished the weekend 3-0, with one doubles win and a pair of straight sets singles victories that clinched both the semifinal and final matches for the Engineers.
MIT, which has appeared in six straight NCAA Division III tournaments, will have to wait to see if it will get a bid to the 2012 Championships. The announcement of the NCAA field will be on May 7.
