SWARTHMORE, Pa. -- The Allegheny College men's tennis team played its final match of the year on Saturday morning, a 4-0 loss to No. 8-ranked Swarthmore College in the second round of the 2026 NCAA Division III Championships.
The Garnet (21-6), host of the regional tournament in the Philadelphia suburb of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, halted Allegheny's (18-8) season in the second round of the national championship tournament for a third year in a row.Â
The Gators faced a Swarthmore team not only No. 8 nationally, but was the top team in the Atlantic South Region. Furthermore, half of the singles lineup was ranked, including Michael Melnikov, who was listed as the second-best player in all of Division III in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) national rankings.
However, freshman
Adam Memije (Monroeville, Pa./Gateway) played an extremely close first set with Melnikov. Memije won the first two games against the four-time Centennial Conference Player of the Year and led 5-4 with a chance to seal a first-set win. Alas, Melnikov battled back to take the last three games and secure the set. Likewise,
Levente Mihaly (Békéscsaba, Hungary/Békéscsabai SZC Széchenyi István) pushed Max Lindstrom, the 36th-best singles player in the country, in a well-contested 6-4 opening set.
Doubles Results
1. #21 Michael Melnikov / Utham Koduri def.
Levente Mihaly /
Olivier Erkens, 6-3
2.
Adam Memije /
Zidaan Hassan vs. Andres Fente / Kai Chen, 4-5, unfinished
3. Max Lindstrom / Winston Zhang def.
Reid Stasolla /
Paxton Garland-Sutter, 6-1
Singles Results
1.
Adam Memije vs. #1 Michael Melnikov, 5-7, unfinished
2.
Levente Mihaly vs. #36 Max Lindstrom, 4-6, 0-1, unfinished
3.
Olivier Erkens vs. Rishi Verma, 0-6, 0-5, unfinished
4. Nikola Galov def.
Zidaan Hassan, 6-0, 6-1
5. Andres Fente def.
Reid Stasolla, 6-0, 6-1
6. Dylan Hayes Gilbert def.
Paxton Garland-Sutter, 6-2, 6-1
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