Amherst started its weekend off on Friday against visiting Springfield College, a non-conference opponent. The Pride were able to get an early jump on the Jeffs in doubles, winning two of the three matches, but as they have all year, Amherst maintained its composure and played well enough in the singles to secure an easy victory. The Jeffs were well represented by a pair of Jeffs: senior co-captain Jeff Lawrence and Geoff Schwartz '08 were the only duo to come away with a doubles victory, winning their pro-set 8-3. Singles went extremely smoothly, as Amherst won all matches, and only dropped a single set. The match allowed first-years Ben Krause and Scott London, who do not typically play in the line-up, to gain valuable experience. They responded positively by winning both of their matches.
The following day, Amherst hosted NESCAC rival and perennial powerhouse Middlebury College, who is currently ranked third in the nation. Although the Jeffs were unable to pull off the upset, they performed admirably in a 6-3 loss. Particularly notable was sophomore Zach Lerner's upset of Alex Scott, the third-ranked singles player in the nation. Lerner was able to come away with the win in straight sets, 6-1, 7-6 (5). This was not the end of Amherst's success however, as Jeff Wan '08 and co-captain Karti Subramanian '07 both secured victories in the fourth and fifth singles flights, respectively. As proud as the team was of splitting the singles matches with the top team in the country, they acknowledged that doubles is still a team weakness, as Middlebury was able to sweep all three doubles matches. The team of Lerner and Tal Avrahami '08 took six games off the fourth-ranked pair in the country, but were unable to come up with the win.
Nevertheless, the team took the positives they had earned against Middlebury and brought them to bear against Tufts University. In their third match in as many days, the team traveled to Medford, Mass., to take on the 17th-ranked Jumbos. In this crucial match on the road, the team knew they needed to elevate its play. "To be honest, our team was a little nervous going into the Tufts match," said Wan. "If we lost the match, there was a good chance that our team would not be competing in NESCACs or the NCAAs."
The nervous energy seemed to work to Amherst's advantage. All three doubles teams managed to come up with victories, giving the Jeffs a rare 3-0 start. No doubles team lost more than five games in their pro-set. The last time the Jeffs won the majority of the doubles, against Williams College, they had a terrible singles performance, losing all six of the matches. On Sunday, however, the team was able to keep its high level of play. Lerner and Michael Mintz '08 won the top two singles flights in straight sets. Schwartz was cruising in the third flight before stumbling in the second set, but was able to recover nicely for a 6-1, 1-6, 6-1 victory. Wan and Subramanian also won in straight sets, and in the final singles spot first-year Daniel Kim played a gutsy match to pull out a 6-3, 2-6, 6-0 victory to complete the 9-0 sweep of Tufts.
The Jeffs finish their season with a 3-2 mark in the NESCAC, good enough for the fifth seed in the conference tournament. They will host the NESCAC Tournament starting on Friday afternoon. Their first match will be against the fourth-seeded and 19th-ranked Bantams of Trinity College. When the Jeffs and Bantams met earlier in the year, Trinity was able to come away with a 6-3 win that featured several extremely close matches. Four of the singles matches went to three sets and two of the doubles matches required tiebreakers. Unfortunately, Amherst will still be without the services of their top first-year, Tristan Biesecker, who injured his elbow earlier in the season.
Should they advance, Amherst will play top-seeded Middlebury for a spot in the conference finals. That match would be especially important for Amherst because the Jeffs would likely need a victory to advance to the NCAA Tournament.
NESCAC Notes
There were a number of blowouts this week, as Colby, Bates, Bowdoin and Amherst Colleges defeated Hamilton College, Connecticut College, Hamilton, and Tufts University all by the score of 9-0.