The men's tennis team concluded the fall season with a strong showing at the Wallach Invitational this weekend at Bates College. Having brought eight players to the tournament to participate in the four singles and doubles flights, Amherst walked away with a first-place finish in the B singles flight by first-year Sean Doerfler and a second-place finish in the A singles flight by senior captain Mike Mintz.
Despite leaving some of the team's top talent at home, Amherst made a big splash at the tournament. The team's top player, Zack Lerner '09, Geoff Schwartz '08 and sophomore Tristan Biesecker all were unable to play due to injury; this meant that those who did go to Bates all had to play at an even higher level than usual.
Playing in the A flight of the singles, Mintz faced some top talent. In his first round match, Mintz blew by his Vassar opponent by a 6-0, 6-2 score. However, in the next round he engaged in quite a battle with Andrew Lee of Middlebury-after dropping the first set 4-6, Mintz came back to take the second set 6-4. The match came down to a super tiebreaker, in which Mintz prevailed 10-7. In the semifinals, Mintz played a very tough opponent in Bryan Brown of Colby College. Brown took the first set in a tiebreaker, but Mintz stormed back to take the next two sets 6-4 and 6-2 to reach the finals. It appeared as though Mintz, having played so many sets, finally just ran out of gas in the championship round. After losing a close set 6-7 (3), Mintz lost the final set 6-1 to settle for runner-up.
The Jeffs also had another representative in the A flight on the other side of the draw, co-captain Jeff Wan '08. Wan earned a bye in the first round and won in convincing fashion in the second, 6-3, 6-2. However, he then fell in the quarters by a score of 6-4, 7-5. In the B flight, Amherst sent two first-years. While Moritz Koenig '11 lost after a first round bye, Sean Doerfler '11 established himself as a dominant force by taking the B flight championship. Doerfler also received a bye, and might as well have had one in the second round as he won 6-0, 6-0.
The quarterfinal match was a little more of a challenge, however, as it took a third set super tiebreaker for Doerfler to win 6-3, 4-6 (10-6). Unlike his teammate Mintz, Doerfler had the advantage of being a little better rested and it showed in the finals. Doerfler was too steady and tough for his Bowdoin opponent as he took the victory 6-3, 6-2, for the B flight championship.
In the C singles flight Amherst also had representation by two Jeff first-years, but they were unable to achieve the same success as their teammates in the B flight. Tony Sheng '11 made it out of the first round with a 6-4, 2-6, 11-9 victory. Alex Gumport '11, after a bye, lost in the second round 5-7, 2-6.
In the D singles flight, sophomore Rob Abbey and first-year Max Gumport competed with Abbey winning his first-round match and Gumport losing a tough game against the eventual champion. In the doubles flights the Jeffs had impressive first-round showings but could not continue the momentum for the rest of the tournament.
This concludes the fall slate for the men's tennis team. Amherst has shown much improvement this season, and the Jeffs are looking to capitalize on that improvement when they hit the courts again in the spring.
"As for the fall season as a whole, I was amazed at the progress that everyone was able to make. Part of that needs to be attributed to coaching, and part of that needs to be attributed to a much more unified determination throughout the team," said Mintz. "Everyone is learning how to work hard during every practice and to push each other. If we keep up this pace of improvement I am confident that we are going to see some great results in the spring."