Kutztown 5, Shaw 3 (HTML Box Score)
 
BLUEFIELD, W.V. – The Kutztown University men's tennis team is making the most of its trip to West Virginia as it picked up a 5-3 win over Shaw University on Sunday afternoon at the Bluefield City Courts in the first round of the NCAA Atlantic Regionals at Bluefield State College.
 
Kutztown (13-6), the No. 4 seed in the Atlantic Region, advances to face No. 1 seed and host Bluefield State in the Atlantic Region One Championship on Monday, April 29 beginning at 11 a.m. The winner of the match will move on to the Sweet 16 in Surprise, Arizona beginning on May 8.
 
Sunday's match against the fifth-seeded Bears (14-7) had to be moved indoors due to inclement weather in the West Virginia area. Kutztown opened the match with a 2-0 lead in the first-to-five format due to Shaw only carrying five players and having to forfeit No. 3 doubles and No. 6 singles.
 
The all-conference doubles team of Rushi Amin (Orefield, PA/Lake Brantley) and Varun Desai (Mumbai, India/K.C. College) gave KU a 2-1 lead through doubles play with an 8-5 victory at No. 1 doubles. They are 9-0 as a team this season, all at the top flight of play.
 
Following Ben Nace (Spring Grove, Pa./Delone Catholic)'s win by forfeit at No. 6 singles to give KU a 3-1 lead, Shaw cut the KU lead to 3-2 with a win at No. 2 singles. Amin gave Kutztown a 4-2 lead and moved to 16-1 in singles play this season with a 6-2, 6-0 win.
 
Rich Lichtenwalner (Allentown, Pa./Parkland) picked up the match-clinching victory at No. 5 singles, winning 6-2, 7-6 (8-6) to send the Golden Bears to a rematch with Bluefield State.
 
Kutztown is on a five-match winning streak with its last loss coming to Bluefield State on April 13 at the Bloomsburg Duals, 5-1.