With the wins, the Jeffs' record improves to 7-3, which puts them in fourth place in the NESCAC conference.
"These wins were huge in boosting team morale and proving to ourselves that all the difficult practices are paying off," said Dave Wellner '02. "This weekend we played with the confidence that we'll need to make nationals at the end of the season."
The Jeffs first disposed of Middlebury on Saturday afternoon. Missing number one player Brian Wexler '02, who was out for the day with an injury, Brian Chin '03 filled his shoes in the top position. He battled for a 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 victory against Middlebury senior Steve Hulce.
Fellow sophomores Adam Leibsohn and Rob Feeley also carried the team with victories at the number two and five singles positions.
With the score of the match tied 3-3 after the singles competition, the Jeffs fought to win two out of the three doubles matches. Although Leibsohn and Chin fell at the number-one position, the number-two team of Andy Tsai '03 and Pete Ransmeier '02 and the number-three team of Wellner and Andy Sagor '03 were both victorious to close out the match 4-3.
"Our excellent doubles play was what ended up saving the match for us," said Leibsohn. "It was also good to see that even without Wexler, our team could still pull together in a pressure situation and win."
On Sunday afternoon, the Jeffs faced the Polar Bears, who were ranked one spot ahead of the Amherst in the NCAA preseason rankings.
"The Bowdoin match was really important to us," said Wexler. "In order to move up in NESCAC rankings, they were a team we needed to beat."
And the Jeffs did just that. With Wexler back at number-one singles, the team scraped by Bowdoin 4-3. Despite losing two of the three doubles matches, the singles play of Wexler, Wellner, Tsai and Feeley was enough to close out the match.
Next Wednesday, Amherst will travel to Boston to face MIT, who defeated Amherst last year 4-3. The men's tennis team will then compete in the NESCAC Tournament at Williams College this weekend.