Championship Results

FLUSHING, N.Y.—Backed by a championship-winning performance by sophomore Elliott Warkus (Waimea, Hawai'i, Parker School), Sarah Lawrence College men's tennis finished as runner-up at the 2013 Hudson Valley Men's Athletic Conference Championships, held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Saturday.

The Gryphons improved upon a fifth-place showing at last year's event, while Warkus won his second career individual title by winning the No. 4 singles bracket. Pratt Institute won seven of nine flights to clinch the team championship.

In addition, junior Phil London (New York, N.Y., Horace Mann) and senior Nathan Thompson (Portland, Ore., Lake Oswego) were named to the HVMAC All-Conference team.

Warkus began his title run with an 8-0 shutout of his opponent from Vaughn College in the quarterfinal round and cruised to an 8-1 upset over Webb Institute's second-seeded player in the semifinal round. Facing Pratt in the championship match, Warkus broke serve to take a 4-2 lead only to have his opponent break back at 4-3. Warkus broke a third-straight game to lead 5-3 and the players exchanged games until the Gryphon triumphed, 8-5.

In other individual flights, three other Gryphons reached the title match in their respective brackets. London notched an 8-4 win against Vaughn to advance to the No. 1 championship against Pratt's John Imamoglu. London broke open a 7-4 lead, but the junior was unable to close out the match. Imamoglu won three straight games to erase the deficit and edged the Gryphon in a tie-breaker, 9-8 (7-3).

At No. 3, Shotaro de Bourbon (Paris, France, International School of Paris) advanced to the final with an 8-3 defeat of his opponent from Culinary Institute of America. Pratt's Fan Mo proved too difficult to handle in the championship match as the Gryphon fell, 8-2.

Gryphon Cameron Basham (Los Angeles, Calif., John Marshall) also advanced to his championship match. As the top seed in the No. 5 singles flight, Basham took down Webb, 8-5, to punch his ticket to the final. Yet again, Pratt's netters proved a challenge, and Basham was defeated 8-5.

In doubles play, the Sarah Lawrence pair of London and Aman Banerji (New Delhi, India, The Shri Ram School) were the Gryphons' only duo to earn a victory. The partnership cruised through the quarterfinal with an 8-2 victory over Culinary, and the upset the No. 2 pair from Webb, 8-4, in the semifinal round. Pratt's Imamoglu and Moritz Petre won in the final, 8-4, earning each player his second title on the day.

Pratt led in the final scoring with 25 points followed by Sarah Lawrence and Culinary tied with 12 points apiece. Webb, Vaughn and St. Joseph's College Brooklyn rounded out the field.