PHILDELPHIA - The University of Pennsylvania men's tennis team is championship bound! Penn took down top-seeded and defending Ivy League champion, Dartmouth, on Saturday at Hecht Tennis Center. The Quakers will advance to the final and play Harvard on Sunday at 3 p.m.

How it Happened

With its, 4-0, win over Cornell on Friday, the Quakers set themselves up for a difficult test against Dartmouth. 

Coming into Saturday's match, Penn held a 7-0 record at Hecht Tennis Center, but even still, it would look to get off to a fast start. However, it was the Big Green who got the early lead on the road. Kyle Mautner and Dmitry Shatalin lost narrowly, 6-3, while Max Cancilla and Alex Huryn fell 6-1. 

It would be an uphill climb in singles for the Quakers, but nothing they couldn't handle. Kevin Zhu lost his first match of the spring as Dartmouth went up 2-0, but it was Edoardo Graziani and Kyle Mautner who tied things up for the Red and Blue. 

Graziani won in straights sets which included a close tiebreaker, 7-6 (8) in the second to edge Penn closer. Mautner's win may have been the most impressive of the day as he defeated the No. 34 ranked player in the ITA, Charlie Broom. Mautner earned a break of serve late in both of his sets to win, 7-5, 7-5.

Max Cancilla then gave the Quakers their first lead of the match at number six singles. He split the first two sets 6-4, 6-3, before taking the decider, 6-4, to put Penn up 3-2. 

Noah Makarome split two tiebreakers as he also went to a third set, but came up short as Dartmouth tied things up at 3-3. The match would come down to the racket of senior Dmitry Shatalin.

Shatalin grabbed a late break of serve in the first set, to take it 7-5, taking an early lead. The senior came up just short in a back-and-fourth second set, falling in a tiebreaker 9-7, evening the match at a set apiece. 

Like the second set, the third also extended to a tiebreaker which would decide the match and who would play in the ECAC championship match on Sunday. With the Penn crowd willing him to the finish line at Hecht, Shatalin came through when his team needed him most, winning 9-7 in the deciding, third-set tiebreaker. 

Full Results

Doubles
1. Broom/Horneffer (DART) d. Mautner/Shatalin (PENN) - 6-3
2. Graziani/Zhu (PENN) vs. Conklin/Rass (DART) - 4-5
3. Martin/Speicher (DART) d. Cancilla/Huryn (PENN) - 6-1

Singles
1. No. 92 Kyle Mautner (PENN) d. No. 34 Charlie Broom (DART) - 7-5, 7-5
2. Edoardo Graziani (PENN) d. Dave Horneffer (DART) - 6-4, 7-6 (8)
3. Dan Martin (DART) d. Kevin Zhu (PENN) - 6-3, 6-4
4. Dmitry Shatalin (PENN) d. Peter Conklin (DART) - 7-5, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (7)
5. Siddharth Chari (DART) d. Noah Makarome (PENN) - 6-7, 7-6, 6-0
6. Max Cancilla (PENN) d. Casey Ross (DART) - 6-4, 3-6, 6-4