"We knew that Middlebury would be there, and they're pretty tough this year," said co-captain Brian Chin '03. "It's pretty early on in the season, so when we play them again [in the spring], we'll be ready."
Although the ECAC tournament did not yield the same dominating sweep over the opposition that marked the Lord Jeffs' first match of the season, there's still plenty to cheer about. "I was pretty happy with the way our freshmen played," said Chin, referring to rookies Danny Babkes '06 and Josh Rilla '06, who followed up their impressive college debuts with top caliber performances.
In first singles, Babkes defeated Middlebury All-American Justin Ingoglia in the semifinals round. Ingoglia topped off the 2001-02 season ranked 17th in the nation and second in the NESCAC. Ingoglia fell to Babkes 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, allowing Babkes to advance to the championship round, where he lost to NYU's Demetrius Leontis 6-2, 6-3. Rilla delivered a solid performance in the number two position, triumphing over NYU's Michael Thompson in a tough 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 semifinal match, before falling to Nathan Edmunds of Middlebury in the finals by a score of 6-2, 6-2. "I played someone this weekend that was really tough and I was surprised at how good he was," said Rilla.
In the fifth singles position, Max Rettig '05 also advanced to the championship round after two crushing victories over rivals Pat Jones of Connecticut College 6-1, 6-0 and Christopher Dong of NYU 6-4, 6-1. Will Abbot '05, advanced to the semifinals at number four singles while Adam Liebsohn '03 lost in the quarterfinals of the number three singles flight.
On Sept. 25, Amherst will host the University of Hartford and later in the week the Jeffs will participate in the Omni ITA Tournament at MIT.