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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology defeated Earlham College 6-1 in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament final on Sunday to clinch the program's first-ever bid to the NCAA III Men's Tennis Championships.
The Fightin' Engineers defeated the Quakers 7-2 back on April 18, and the doubles matches in the HCAC Tournament went the same way. Rose-Hulman's second doubles team of junior Matt Conrad and freshman Cam Metzger won their match 8-4 while freshmen Derek Benedict and Tyler Haas won third doubles 8-0. Earlham's first doubles team of Vitalii Stadny and Jack Ventura-Cruess defeated sophomores Brandon Benedict and Georges Adam 8-4.
Derek Benedict improved to 14-4 on the season with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Adam Schwartz at fifth singles. Haas also won his sixth singles flights by a score of 6-0, 6-0.
The fifth and sixth singles wins put the Engineers up 4-1. Because of the match being played to decision, Rose-Hulman needed just one more point to secure the victory. Coincidentally, both Brandon Benedict and Conrad finished their respective matches at the same time. Benedict avenged an earlier loss to Stadny with a 6-2, 6-2 win at first singles while Conrad defeated Vojislav Tatarevic 6-4, 6-1 at fourth singles.
Rose-Hulman (13-5, 8-0 HCAC) achieved two program-firsts in 2015. The Engineers not only won the HCAC Tournament, they also won the HCAC regular season championship outright. Rose-Hulman will find out its draw for the NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Championships on Monday (May 4) at noon.
