The Jeffs suffered their first NESCAC loss of the whole year, dropping a close 5-4 match against Middlebury College on Saturday. Middlebury also beat Williams College by the same score, and it can be argued that the three schools are the top three in the entire country. After the loss though, the Jeffs came back yesterday and ended up on the winning side of another close 5-4 match against Tufts University.
The Middlebury match, unfortunately for Amherst, took place at the Mt. Holyoke indoor courts instead of the Amherst outdoor courts. With snow still on the ground, the courts were not useable.
After a 12 p.m. start, the match turned into a marathon as the two evenly matched teams battled for about five hours. In the doubles, Amherst came out strong and jumped out to a 2-1 lead. The first doubles team of junior Alicia Menezes and first-year Brittany Berckes easily handled their opponents 8-3. The second doubles team of the reunited senior co-captain Katie Hudson and junior Monica Snyder also won by the same score.
In the singles play, Berckes and Snyder led the Jeffs at the second and third spots respectively. Berckes won 6-3, 6-1 and Snyder, after a close first set, bagled her opponent in the second to win 6-4, 6-0. After junior Jen Murphy and Menezes lost in straight sets at the fourth and first spot respectively, the match came down to the final two singles matches still in progress.
Clinging onto a 4-3 lead, Amherst needed to secure one more win but found themselves trailing in fifth and sixth singles spots. In the sixth spot Laura Stein '08, after losing the first set 6-1, played an exciting second set in which she ultimately fell 7-6 (7-5). The attention then switched to Hudson's number five court to decide the match. After dropping the first, Hudson came back to win the second set. She appared to have the momentum, but her opponent, Emily Hollick, decisively won the third set for a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 victory and a 5-4 Middlebury win.
"Although we lost a tough one, we feel confident heading into the rest of the season and playing them again," said Menezes. "In the end the force will be with us as Mrs. Berckes said it would."
The Jeffs expected the Middlebury match to be close, but they probably did not expect to face such a fiesty Tufts team. Having switched court surfaces so many times the past few days, the Jeffs had trouble adjusting at first and fell behind 2-1 after doubles. The second doubles team of Hudson and Snyder won their second straight match, winning 8-6. Third doubles fell 5-8 and first doubles fell in an extremely close match, 8-9 (5-7).
Down 2-1, the Jeffs did not panic and knew what they had to do to earn a victory. The second through five singles teams all managed to win.
After dropping the first set, Berckes was determined to continue her winning ways. She recovered to win 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. Snyder, who is practically unbeatable at the third spot won, in straight sets again, 6-3, 6-4.
Murphy and Hudson stayed focused and both won close second sets after winning the first. Murphy won 6-3, 7-5 and Hudson won 6-2, 7-6 (7-5).
"It was challenging to adjust to the different court surfaces that they were used to," said Snyder. "But once we adjusted we were able to pull through and come out with the win."
The win puts the Jeffs at 5-3 overall and 2-1 in NESCAC play. Amherst will travel to Maine this weeknd to play Colby College on Saturday and Bowdoin College on Sunday.
NESCAC Notes
Middlebury is undefeated in the NESCAC and beat Williams, who has only played one NESCAC match. Aside from these two powerhouses, Bowdoin is also improved and will be a challenging match for the Jeffs.