PURCHASE, N.Y. – TGIF! It's Championship Friday and for the third season in a row, the No. 1 Manhattanville College men's tennis team will be competing in the Skyline Conference Championship Finals. The Valiants will square off with the No. 2 Farmingdale State College Rams for a chance at the conference title and an NCAA Tournament bid awaiting the winner. 
   
How We Got Here:
 
The Valiants defended their top seed on Thursday afternoon with 5-0 semifinals win over No. 5 Merchant Marine. After winning all three doubles matches, the Valiants took the first two singles points to win the match, earning their third-straight Skyline Finals berth. James Hourihan (Ridgefield, Conn./Ridgefield) and Weston Goodwin (Freeport, Maine/Freeport) earned an 8-6 win in the top doubles flight, while the duo of Luis Gonzalez (Norwalk, Conn./Brien McMahon) and Dylan Crowley (Pelham, N.Y./Pelham Memorial) secured an 8-2 victory in No. 2 doubles. Max Moeller (Crestwood, N.Y./Iona Prep) and Shiel Loganadan (New York, N.Y./Mary McDowell Friends) rounded out the team with an 8-5 win to get three points on the board early. For singles, Crowley would finish first in the No. 5 spot going 6-2, 6-3 as Jaime Peredo (Uruapan, México/Instituto Morelos) would come out victorious and send Manhattanville to the championship match with a 6-2, 6-1 win at No. 6 singles. Hourihan, Gonzalez, Goodwin, and Loganadan's matches would all go unfinished. The Valiants will look to capitalize on a perfect 7-0 regular season, hoping to go back-to-back as conference champs. 
 
As for the Rams, they would also secure a 5-0 victory in the semifinals against No. 3 Yeshiva University on Thursday afternoon. Mark Baker and Ryan Hendel would sweep 8-0 in the top doubles position as Alan Sabovic and Muhammad Sawar would follow suit at No. 2 doubles with an 8-2 victory. Matthew Olkhovetsky and Ethan Cintron would get the final doubles win going 8-5 on the court. In singles play, Baker would become the career singles leader for Farmingdale State with 44 wins after a 6-0, 3-0 win by retirement match in the top slot. Sabovic would then get the 6-1, 6-0 victory at No. 2 singles to send the Rams to their ninth Skyline Finals appearance since 2008. 
 
Last Time Out:
 
The Valiants played host to the Rams on Apr. 8 which was halfway through each team's conference campaign with both sporting perfect records in Skyline play coming into the match. Manhattanville secured a close 5-4 victory over Farmingdale State taking one doubles match and four tightly contested singles matches from Goodwin, Loganadan, Crowley, and Peredo. The full scores from the match are below: 
 
Doubles 
 
Hourihan/Goodwin def. by Baker/Hendel, 6-8
Crowley/Moeller def. by Sabovic/Sawar, 6-8
Loganadan/Peredo def. Olkhovetsky/Manzi, 8-3
 
Singles 
 
Hourihan def. by Baker, 1-6, 1-6 
Gonzalez def. by Sabovic, 5-7, 3-6
Goodwin def. Hendel, 5-7, 6-4, 7-5
Loganadan def. Sawar, 6-2, 6-3
Crowley def. Olkhovetsky, 6-7 (7-9), 7-6 (7-3), 6-4
Peredo def. Manzi, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5
 
History: 

Manhattanville is 4-1 all-time against Farmingdale State since their first meeting back in 2019. Each match being as close as the last. The Valiants are on a two-match win streak against the Rams, including the 5-4 victory from this current season and a 5-4 win on the road last April. The only contest that the Rams won was during the 2021 season, where they came out victorious, 5-4. Manhattanville is 2-1 against Farmingdale State on the Manhattanville Tennis Courts.