Cambridge, Mass. – Visiting Clark University pushed MIT as hard as they have been pushed in a while by a team from the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) but in the end, the Engineers edged past the Cougars, 6-3, on Saturday afternoon at the DuPont Tennis Courts.
The Scarlet and White are now 11-6 overall and 2-2 in conference contests, while the Engineers improve to 8-4 and 4-0 in league matches.
Curtis Wu and Kevin Wang began the match by taking down Dan Stein (Newton, Mass.) and Zach Goodstein (Columbus, Ohio), 8-6, at No. 1.
MIT kept it going with a win at No. 2 behind an 8-3 triumph by Edwin Zhang and Eugene Oh over Fernando Pinoargote (Guayaquil, Ecuador) and Spencer Pinkney (Falmouth, Mass.).
The Cougars took the third doubles match when Spencer Brightman (Sudbury, Mass.) and Josh Burger (Fairfield, Conn.) teamed up to get past Jeffrey Sperling and Moseley Andrews by a 9-8 (8-0) decision.
Things tightened up during singles play beginning with Stein's straight set win over Zhang, 6-4, 7-5. Pinkney then lost a hard fought 7-5, 7-5 result to Oh but Burger responded with a 7-6, 6-0 win over Kristopher Bronner at No. 6.
MIT wrapped up the match with wins at No. 4 as Jeffrey Bu dropped Goodstein, 6-4, 6-1 and No. 5 where Alex Jaffe posted a 6-0, 6-2 win over Joel Simonson (Waterford, Conn.).
The Scarlet and White will play host to Coast Guard in a crucial NEWMAC matchup on Wednesday. First serve is slated for 4:00 p.m.
