Worcester, Mass. – Host Clark University breezed through the three doubles matches and then held off a hard-charging Wheaton squad in singles action, posting a 5-0 win over the Lyons in the New England Women's And Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) men's tennis quarterfinal on Saturday afternoon.
With the win, the fourth-seeded Cougars (6-10) advance to square off with the league's top seed in Babson College (12-3) next Saturday at 12:00 p.m.
Wheaton, meanwhile, sees their season come to an end at 7-8 as well as the fantastic career of longtime head coach Lynn Miller. Miller, who has more than 600 combined wins as both the men's and women's coach at Wheaton for more than two decades, announced her retirement earlier this week.
In today's match, Clark opened the matchup with a pair of easy doubles wins beginning with Dan Stein (Newton, Mass.) and Josh Burger (Fairfield, Conn.) topping Alden Zeff (Stratham, N.H.) and Will White (Nantucket, Mass.), 8-1 at No. 2.
That was followed by Fernando Pinoargote (Guayaquil, Ecuador) and Spencer Pinkney (Falmouth, Mass.) quickly dispatching of David Gassen (Dusseldorf, Germany) and Lawrence Chan (Lincoln, R.I.), 8-2 at No. 1.
The Cougars finished off the doubles sweep with an 8-6 triumph at No. 3 by Zack Goodstein (Columbus, Ohio) and Scott Cabell (West Hartford, Conn.) over Shreve Archer (Pebble Beach, Calif.) and Tyler Butler (Portland, Maine).
Clark took the first two singles matches that finished to collect the victory. Burger moved past Zeff at No. 5, 6-3, 6-1 and then Pinoargote wrapped things up with 6-3, 6-4 win over Chan at No. 3.
Saturday's showdown with the Beavers will mark the fourth straight season that the Cougars have advanced to the conference semifinals and the third straight year that they will face Babson in the semifinal round.
