A pair of first-years came away with Amherst's only two individual victories in the Williams match. Auloke Mathur defeated Tyler Kyle at the second spot in a hard-fought five-game match (9-7, 9-5, 7-9, 7-9, 9-4).
"Auloke stepped up against a worthy opponent" said Peter Hatfield '07. "The fitness training, and in particular his newfound ability to do 10 push-ups in a row, certainly paid off in his five-game match."
Classmate Stuart Landesberg also earned a win for the Jeffs in the ninth spot, beating Ephman Ted Unger in three close games (9-5, 10-9, 10-9).
Gifford Sommerkamp '05 and co-captain Brian Lawrence '05 took their matches into four games apiece in the third and eighth spots, respectively. Sommerkamp nearly took his opponent, Andrew Pizzi, to a fifth game, losing the fourth by only one point.
"Our loss to Williams was certainly a disappointing result," commented Landesberg. "They are definitely a beatable team, we're looking forward to seeing them at Nationals."
The Jeffs struggled while playing on the Ephs' home court against a large and biased crowd. "We just couldn't quite pull out some matches. It was a tough loss and we're looking to avenge it at Nationals," said Lawrence.
All season, the Jeffs have lost to top-10 teams while defeating opponents ranked behind them. This weekend they followed that pattern with the win over the 19th-ranked Cardinals. Amherst also lost to fourth-ranked Princeton University on Sunday.
Amherst's line-up was simply too much for Wesleyan. All nine men won handily in just three games. Michael Strong '05 led the way on the first court for Amherst, beating Benson Gillespie 10-9, 9-1 and 9-6. Mathur and Sommerkamp won in the second and third spots, respectively.
Sophomores Nick Haslett and Tyler Mixter tallied victories in the fourth and fifth slots as well, followed by senior co-captain Asad Haque and Hatfield at sixth and seventh, respectively. Lawrence and Landesberg rounded out the wins for the Jeffs in the eighth and ninth spots.
The next day, Amherst traveled to Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., to face Princeton on a neutral court. The results were again unsatisfactory, as the Jeffs did not take a match. Princeton fields a perennially strong team and overpowered Amherst.
The Jeffs round out their regular season on Feb. 21 as they travel to New Haven, Conn. to take on the second-ranked Yale University Elis.