FLUSHING, N.Y. — Third-seeded Webb Institute won four singles matches to come from behind to defeat the Culinary Institute of America, 5-4, to claim the 2018 Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship on Saturday afternoon at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

The Webbies (5-2) upended the top two seeds to secure their first title, handing the regular-season champion Steels (6-1) their first loss of the season and snapping their two-year reign atop the conference.

Culinary and Webb both earned spots in the final with 5-1 victories in their semifinal matches over Vaughn and Pratt, respectively.

The Steels took a 2-1 lead after the doubles session with the No. 2 pair of Alex Cordell and Eduardo Guevara earning a break at 7-6 and held to close out an 8-6 win.

In the singles play, Webb’s Kevin Prichard cruised to a 10-2 win at the No. 6 position to level the overall match before Culinary’s Cassidy Seo and Wonil Chung posted the next two points at No. 1 and No. 3 singles to move back ahead 4-2.

With Webb pulling away at No. 4 and No. 5 singles, the No. 2 match between Webb’s Oscar Como and Culinary’s Guevara proved to be the decisive match. Guevara battled through cramps to try to salvage the title for the Steels, but Como closed him out 10-5, to be the only player in the final two secure two points. Shortly after Como’s match went final, Luke Herbermann and Galen Ng both wrapped up the first title for the Webbies with matching 10-4 victories.

Our Winter Work term is a mandatory program for all students that takes place every January and February where our students spread out across the globe to gain real life working experience.

Freshmen work alongside ship fitters and welders in shipyards. Sophomores serve as student observers aboard ocean going ships to gain hands-on understanding and appreciation for the relationships between the marine environment, the shipping industry, the ship’s operators, and the ship’s design. Juniors and seniors network and apply themselves in design and engineering offices around the world.

Student blogs will be available soon!

See where our Webbies are this Winter Work Term! 

Please note the class of 2020 are on ships and can be tracked below.

List of Winter Work term companies and their locations:

Class of 2018

Class of 2019

Class of 2020 (On ocean-bound ships)

Class of 2021