Highlighting the weekend for the Jeffs were the performances of Andrew Merle '04 and Will Abbott '05, who each went 3-0 in singles competition. Unfortunately, the Jeffs were unable to win any of their doubles matches over the weekend, a fact that cost them dearly against Trinity and Tufts.
On Friday, Amherst hosted the Wesleyan University team to commence their much-anticipated spring season. The Jeffs looked good and won the affair 5-2, powered by stellar performances in singles. Bryan Wexler '02, Andy Tsai '03, George Tsai '02, Abbott and Merle all pulled out impressive wins in singles, while Adam Leibsohn '03 fell in a close three set match, while battling muscle cramps.
The highlight of the day was Wexler's three set win over Wesleyan's Alex Wong in the top singles slot. Wexler overcame a difficult second set to win 7-5, 1-6, 7-5. "I feel that the support of the team was vital to my success on Friday," said Wexler. "No win is an individual battle in a team match. I also have had experience playing in poor lighting conditions [the match ended quite late at night] and that gave me an advantage."
Heading into the spring season, the biggest question mark for the Jeffs was their doubles line-up. While Head Coach Peter Robson is still shuffling the doubles pairings, Amherst dropped two of three doubles matches against Wesleyan and was thus unable to procure the doubles point.
Weakness in doubles would cost the 19th ranked Jeffs in their next match, an April 7 showdown against Trinity. This match was very important for Amherst as the Jeffs and Bantams figure to be two of the top contenders for the number two slot in the wide open NESCAC behind tennis powerhouse Williams College.
Amherst and Trinity finished even in the singles, but once again the Lord Jeffs dropped two of three doubles matches to lose the contest as a whole, 4-3. Wexler once again managed a three-set win in singles, coming from behind to top Richard Lawrence 5-7, 6-3, 6-4. Abbott and Merle also posted convincing wins 6-4, 6-2 and 6-2, 6-0 in the five and six singles slots respectively.
Following this disappointing loss to Trinity, the Jeffs traveled the following day to Boston, Mass. to take on the Tufts University Jumbos. While Tufts is not currently highly-ranked, they are certainly a solid team. The Jumbos dismantled MIT earlier in the season and lost a very close match to Williams College. Leibsohn, Abbott and Merle each won their singles matches in workmanlike fashion, but by evenly splitting the singles portion of the match with their hosts, Amherst needed to win two out of three doubles matches to leave Boston with a winning NESCAC record.
Unfortunately, despite solid tennis all-around, the Jeffs came up short, winning only one doubles match. The number three doubles pairing of Abbott and Merle actually held a 6-3 lead in the eight-game pro set and seemed on the verge of delivering the match to Robson and company, but the young players ran out of momentum and dropped the heartbreaker, 8-6.
Despite the seemingly slow start, Robson is optimistic about the team's chances. "The team is playing well and is starting to believe that they can beat Williams, so we are right there," said Robson. "We just need a little push."
The team will have a chance to prove their coach correct this Saturday when they travel to Williamstown to take on their archrival and the top-ranked school in Division III, Williams.