Top Seed In Landmark Conference Men's Tennis Championships Up For Grabs In Rescheduled Goucher-Drew Match On Tuesday

BALTIMORE, Md. - The Landmark Conference regular-season title and top seed for the upcoming tournament will be up for grabs when Goucher College and Drew University meet in Madison, N.J., on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. The match was originally postponed from the scheduled April 17 date.

The winner of the match on Tuesday will be the No. 1 seed in the postseason tournament, starting on Saturday. A win by Goucher would guarantee that the championship would have to come through Baltimore if the Gophers win the first two postseason games. A loss by the Blue and Gold would drop the Gophers to the No. 3 seed thanks to the University of Scranton winning the head-to-head tiebreaker (April 18) to move into the No. 2 seed.

Goucher comes into the contest 6-1 on the year, while Drew is 6-0 on the season.

Omosesan Adebamgbe (Philadelphia, Pa./Lower Merion) and Slade Dumas (Great Falls, Va./Dominion) are 6-1 at No. 1 doubles on the year and most likely will face the No. 1 Rangers doubles team of John Dickey and Bryce Kennedy, who comes into the match 3-3 on the year.

At No. 2 doubles, one of the doubles teams will lose for the first time this season. The Gophers Angel Cerpa (El Paso, Texas/Americas) and Brian Kane (Philadelphia, Pa./Friends Select) are 7-0 this season, while Drew's No. 2 doubles team of Geoffrey Diehl and Brett Schuler are 6-0 this season.

At No. 1 singles, an interesting matchup could take place between Dumas and Diehl. Dumas, the current Landmark Conference Athlete of the Week, is 6-1 on the year, and he needs one win to break the Landmark Conference all-time career singles wins mark. Dumas has 65 career singles wins to set the program's record in the match against Catholic on Saturday. Diehl also broke a record this weekend to become the Rangers all-time career doubles wins leader with 66 wins.

Adebamgbe is 4-2 at No. 2 singles and moved to No. 3 singles on Saturday, and he won that match to improve to 5-2 on the year. Kane was 6-0 at No. 3 singles, and moved to No. 2 singles on Saturday, and lost his first match of the season. For Drew, Dan Blumenthal is 3-3 at No. 2 singles, while Santo Carroccia and John Dickey are each 3-0 at No. 3 singles.

Cerpa is 6-1 at No. 4 singles, and he will most likely face Jeremy Gottlieb, who is 6-0 at No. 4 singles. Alex Dominguez (Healdsburg, Calif./Healdsburg) is 0-7 on the year at the No. 5 and No. 6 spots for the Gophers. Jack Polvere played No. 5 singles for the Rangers in the last match and is 5-0 on the year between No. 5 and No. 6 singles. The Blue and Gold will be playing with five players, and will default No. 3 doubles and No. 6 singles to start the match down, 2-0.

Goucher's formula for success this season has been winning at No. 1 and No. 2 singles and then taking at least three of the Top-4 flights at singles. The Gophers have won three matches, 5-4, two by the margin of 6-3, and one contest by a 7-2 score.

These two teams are the winningest men's tennis programs in Landmark Conference history. Drew won the regular-season title from 2008-2012 and won the first six tournament crowns (2008-13) since the league's inception. Goucher is looking for its fourth regular-season crown (2016, 2018, 2019), and the squad will be driving for its fifth-straight tournament crown when the tournament begins on Saturday.

The two teams have been the No. 1 seed in eight of the 12 league's postseason, and neither team has lost the championship match as the top seed. The No. 1 seed has won nine championships while the No. 2 seed has won twice, and No. 3 has taken the tournament once.