PHILADELPHIA - For the first time since the 2006-07 season, the University of Pennsylvania men's tennis team won the ECAC Championship. For the second day in a row, it would come down to the final match on court. Sunday, it was
Max Cancilla who came up big for the Quakers, winning 6-3 in the third set to secure the 4-3 victory over Harvard.
How it Happened
Like Saturday against Dartmouth, Penn fell behind in doubles against Harvard.
Max Cancilla and
Aleks Huryn won, 6-0, while
Kevin Zhu and
Edoardo Graziani fell, 6-3 at number two doubles to give the Crimson the doubles point.
The Quakers looked to match their success in singles from the previous two days. They did just that as they took the first set in each of the six matches.
Kyle Mautner put the Red and Blue on the board first, completing his straight set victory, 6-2, 6-1.
Edoardo Graziani and
Dmitry Shatalin followed suit to give Penn a 3-1 lead and one match away from the title. Graziani took his match, 6-4, 6-2 over the No. 72 ranked Robertas Wrzesinski. The hero from Saturday, Shatalin, won in straight sets on Sunday 6-4, 7-5.
Harvard would not go down easy. The Crimson came back with wins at three and five to tie the match, 3-3. Zhu came up just short, 6-2 in the third while Makarome also fell in three sets, 6-1.
Saturday's match came down to the racket of
Dmitry Shatalin. Sunday's match would come down to
Max Cancilla. The junior took the opening set, 6-4 to grab the early lead and then dropped a narrow set, 7-6, forcing a third.
On serve throughout, Cancilla finally grabbed the break to go up 5-3. Serving for the championship, he embraced the moment. Cancilla fell to the ground as his teammates stormed the court. The junior took the deciding set, 6-3, clinching the match for the Quakers.
Penn's ECAC championship win will give it a ton of momentum heading into the rest of the non-conference schedule. The Quakers remain undefeated at home and will return to Hecht on March 10 against Clemson.
Full Results
Doubles
1. No. 53 Zhou/Weber (HAR) d. Mautner/Shatalin (PENN) - 6-3
2. Wrzeskinski/Shi (HAR) d. Graziani/Zhu (PENN) - 6-3
3. Cancilla/Huryn (PENN) d. Morrow/Leschly (HAR) - 6-0
Singles
1. No. 92
Kyle Mautner (PENN) d. Andy Zhou (HAR) - 6-1, 6-2
2.
Edoardo Graziani (PENN) d. No. 72 Robertas Wrzensinski (HAR) - 6-4, 6-2
3. Brian Shi (HAR) d.
Kevin Zhu (PENN) - 4-6, 6-4, 6-2
4.
Dmitry Shatalin (PENN) d. Harry Walker (HAR) - 6-4, 7-5
5. Steven Sun (HAR) d.
Noah Makarome (PENN) - 5-7, 6-3, 6-1
6.
Max Cancilla (PENN) d. Constantin Zoske (HAR) - 6-4, 6-7, 6-3
