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VIDEO INTERVIEW - DAN HOPKINS

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TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - The he Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology men's tennis team clinched at least a share of the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference regular season title on Saturday with a 7-2 victory over Earlham College at the Joy Hulbert Tennis Center.

The Fightin' Engineers (9-5, 7-0 HCAC) also clinch the No. 1 seed for the HCAC Tournament scheduled for May 2-3 in Indianapolis. The tournament winner also earns the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA III Men's Tennis Tournament.

Rose-Hulman took two of the three doubles flights. The second doubles team of junior Matt Conrad and freshman Cam Metzger won their seventh match of the season defeating Gleb Babikov and Vojislav Tatarevic 8-5. Freshmen Tyler Haas and Derek Benedict won their third doubles match 8-1.

The Engineers needed only three singles flights to clinch the match, and won the first three completed singles matches. Haas won his seventh match at six singles with a 6-0, 6-0 victory while Benedict won his eighth match at fifth singles with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Adam Schwartz.

Metzger sealed Rose-Hulman's victory winning his 10th match at third singles, 6-4, 6-2 over Jack Ventura-Cruess. Conrad and sophomore Georges Adam also won their matches in straight sets at fourth and second singles respectively.

Earlham's two victories game at first doubles and first doubles.

Rose-Hulman clinches a share of the HCAC regular season title for the second time in school history (2011). The Engineers host Transylvania next Saturday, April 25, for a chance to win the program's first-ever outright conference championship. Before that, Rose-Hulman hosts non-conference foe Oakland City at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 23.