On Friday Menezes breezed through her first round opponent, Lisa Steckmest of Connecticut College, 6-2, 6-1. She then defeated teammate Katie Hudson '07 in the second round in similarly dominating fashion, 6-1, 6-3.
Her performance on Saturday was just as good. She beat seventh-seeded Amy Roche of Middlebury College, 6-2, 4-6, 10-6 in the round of 16 in her longest match. The second set loss was the only blemish on a nearly-perfect performance. Menezes needed only two sets to earn an upset quarterfinal win over second-seeded Sara Hughes of Colby College, 6-0, 6-2.
Menezes returned to the courts on Sunday for the semifinals to prove that her performance of the past two days was anything but beginner's luck. She dropped just one game to Middlebury's Claire Smyser, who was seeded sixth. In the finals, she played against Tufts University's Jen Luten, who was favored to win the tournament. Menezes won her first college title in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3.
"Alicia [Menezes] certainly proved not only to everyone on our team but to the whole league what a good player she is," said Holt. "[She] sent a very very strong message indicating just how strong Amherst is as a team."
Holt and Menezes teamed up for the doubles tournament. The tournament marked only the second time the senior and first-year paired up for intercollegiate play. Against Wesleyan University in the Jeffs' home opener on Sept. 18, they just squeaked by the Cardinals' number-one pair, 8-6. However, they proved this weekend that any kinks had been ironed out.
On Friday the top-seeded pair breezed through their first two rounds without dropping a single game. In Saturday's quarterfinals they defeated Francesca Russo and Erin Seu of Babson College, 8-4. Amherst's top doubles team finished the day with an 8-2 semifinal win over Lauren Kemp and Ruth Linz of Smith College.
Holt and Menezes came out strong for Sunday's finals against Colby's Hughes and Allison Dunn, the third-seeded pair. The Jeffs held on to an 8-3 victory to win the Omni doubles crown.
"It was also really nice for [Menezes] and I to do so well in doubles," said Holt, who is no stranger to success in this tournament, having won the singles title in 2002 and advancing to the finals last season. "I had never made it past the semifinals in doubles at this particular tournament so it was a real breakthrough to win it," said Holt. "I feel that Alicia and I played as good a doubles tournament as I've been part of."
Other Amherst players found success in the weekend as well. Holt, the fourth seed at singles, had easy victories in the first two rounds before being stopped in the round of 16 by Connecticut College's Beret Remak, 1-6, 4-6.
Although Hudson's singles tournament was halted by Menezes in the second round, she paired with Monica Snyder '08 for strong victories over teams from Middlebury and Tufts. Hudson and Snyder suffered a close defeat in the quarterfinals from a second pair from Middlebury, 6-8.
"Katie [Hudson] and Monica [Snyder], who had never played together before this tournament, had a super showing in doubles as well, taking down the top doubles team that Tufts had in the tournament," said Holt.
Senior quad-captain Erin Murphy and Laura Stein '08 paired up in the doubles tournament, where they advanced to the consolation finals.
Snyder, Murphy and Stein all had solid performance at singles as well. Snyder and Murphy each defeated the number-one player from Williams College, and Stein had a great match against Colby's top player. Holt called it "the ultimate testament to how deep we are as a team." She continued, "The tournament was a real success overall. Everyone really had a number of good performances either in singles or doubles."
Amherst is excited about its prospects for the remainder of the fall season. "We made a very strong showing and really set the stage for a great fall season, and got a chance to see our upcoming competition," said Murphy.
Murphy praised the three first-years, Menezes, Stein and Snyder. "[They] really showed their stuff this weekend, all having a great tournament and results that they should be proud of ... I'm looking forward to the rest of the season as a chance to see what more we can accomplish."
On Friday the women will complete their match at UMass, which they began on Sept. 21 but did not finish because of darkness, with UMass leading 2-0. On Sunday, Amherst travels to Maine to play Bowdoin College in the morning and Colby in the afternoon.