The leadership and experience of a talented senior class has combined with impressive underclassmen play to guide the Jeffs to a strong start.
This past weekend exemplified both the challenges the team has faced as well as the successes they have garnered.
On Friday, Amherst traveled to Ithaca, N.Y. to take on 6th-ranked Cornell University. The Jeffs were swept by a dominating Cornell team 9-0. Andrew Merle '04 and Brian Lawrence '05 were the only Amherst players to take a game from their opponents. The team has yet to win a match against an Ivy League foe this season.
However, in a characteristic show of their play thus far, Amherst traveled to Geneva, N.Y. the following day and bounced back to defeat host Hobart College 6-3. Senior co-captains Carlo Valdesolo and John Holodnak as well as Nick Haslett '06 turned in notable performances, each winning in three straight games. Michael Strong '05, Lawrence and Merle also contributed to the victory by pulling out convincing wins.
This pattern of tough losses and solid wins was typical of the Jeffs' Interterm performance. The weeks before saw similar results as Amherst defeated Bowdoin College before losing to both the University of Pennsylvania and Brown University and then beating M.I.T.
On Jan. 17, the Jeffs traveled to Philadelphia where they competed against 10th-ranked NESCAC rival Bowdoin Polar Bears as well as the host Quakers.
In an evenly-fought match on Friday night, the Jeffs edged the Polar Bears 5-4 overall, thanks to a nail-biting five-game victory by Strong and the four other wins by Valdesolo, Holodnak, Haslett and David Bauer '03.
The following day the players may have been slightly distracted by the excitement of the NFC championship game happening in town, as the team was swept by the 8th ranked UPenn team 9-0. The only games in which Amherst was able to snatch a victory were those of Strong and Bauer, who each won a game. Strong, a Philly native, might have even won his match had he not been so distracted by his attempts to scalp tickets outside Veterans Stadium all day.
With the loss, the team fell to 3-2 overall despite being undefeated in conference play. Before final exams, Amherst defeated NESCAC foes Tufts University and Colby College.
"We are continuing to improve our play despite playing a difficult schedule," said Strong. "We had an important win over a tough Bowdoin team which helped improve our ranking. However, we have yet to beat a team that is ranked much higher than us."
The following Tuesday the Jeffs faced another top-ten team when they hosted 9th-ranked Brown University. The Jeffs fell 7-2 despite a shutout victory by Valdesolo in the third spot and a win by Tyler Mixter '06 in the number-nine position. The then-17th-ranked Jeffs fell to 3-3 with the loss.
"Our match against Brown was the most disappointing loss since we felt we could have done much better," said Valdesolo. "Three of the matches went to five games, and we were unable to pull any of them out for wins. That close defeat, however, showed us that we are capable of winning the second division this year and has made everyone start to focus more on improving and believing that this could be a very successful season."
The Jeffs were in fact able to bounce back the following day at M.I.T. The Amherst men traveled to Cambridge to claim a redeeming 7-2 victory, despite losses in the number one and two spots. Gifford Sommerkamp '05 has played in the number-one spot in every match this season and has had to face many talented opponents.
"Playing number one is rough, as most schools and especially all the Division I schools have at least one unbelievable player," said Sommer-kamp. "The middle of the line-up will be what carries our team throughout the season."
Despite the losses by Sommer-kamp and Strong in the two spot, Valdesolo, Holodnak, Bauer, Haslett, Lawrence, Merle and junior Asad Haque all achieved shutout victories in the three through nine slots en route to the Jeff win. Haque posted the most dominating performance in the Amherst victory, winning his matches 9-0, 9-1 and 9-1 in his first appearance in the scoring ladder.
The following Saturday, Dec. 7, the Jeffs hosted a NESCAC match against Colby College in which Amherst posted another 9-0 shutout win, including two five-game victories by Sommerkamp and Haslett. Besides close matches in the top slots, senior David Bauer '03, Merle and Mixter posted dominating numbers in the seventh, eighth and ninth slots, with each allowing fewer than five points to their opponents.
The Jeffs began their Interterm schedule in Hanover, N.H. on Jan. 15 to take on Ivy League power Dartmouth College. Despite two impressive match wins by Strong and Valdesolo, the Big Green handed the Jeffs their first loss of the season by a score of 7-2.
"The team has consistently been getting better over Interterm," said Valdesolo. "We came up with important wins over Bowdoin and Hobart and played solidly against difficult matches at Dartmouth and Cornell. Williams is the biggest match remaining and judging from results against common opponents it should be a dead-even match-up and a very exciting event."
Amherst returns to action this Friday when they face the visiting University of Rochester at 6:00 p.m.