The men's tennis team kicked off its fall slate with a mediocre showing at the Cornell Fall Invitational last weekend. Competing individually, the team's best result came from Jeff Wan '08, who won the consolation bracket of the B Flight singles.

The tournament, held in Ithaca, N.Y., on the campus of Cornell University, gave the team a chance to play against tough competition from Div. I and Div. II, teams Amherst normally does not face. Middlebury College, the defending NESCAC champion, was the only other squad in Amherst's conference to participate. "I think Cornell was a great experience for the team," said Wan. "It allows us to see how much better we need to be."

Unfortunately, the answer seemed to be that the Jeffs still have some ways to go. In the A Flight singles, Zach Lerner '09 and Michael Mintz '08, Amherst's top two players, both lost their opening matches, and then lost again in close contests in the opening round of the consolation bracket.

The B Flight singles were slightly more encouraging, as first-year Sean Doerfler won his first round match, one of only two first-round victories in the tournament for the Jeffs. Unfortunately, Doerfler lost his next two matches and was eliminated. Wan, Amherst's other entrant into the B Flight, lost his opening round match, but then won three consecutive matches to earn the consolation title.

Amherst's only two other singles wins on the day came in the D Flight, as Tony Sheng '11 picked up a first-round win and Ben Krause '10 won a match in the consolation bracket before being eliminated. Krause and Sheng later teamed up to give the Jeffs their only doubles victory, defeating a Middlebury team in the B Flight doubles.

Despite the deflating results, the Jeffs are keeping their heads up and reminding themselves that they still have a lot to be positive about. One particularly exciting item is the presence of new head coach Chris Garner, to whom the team is quickly warming. "Chris has an unbelievable mind for the game of tennis and is throwing a lot of new information our way," said Mintz. "Once it becomes instinct I am confident that the team is going to take a huge step in the right direction."

The team is also excited about implementing some new techniques they picked up from watching Cornell. "I learned a lot at Cornell," said Wan. "They make their freshmen wear bike helmets during practice, which I think is something all Amherst teams should enforce." The Jeffs have yet to implement any such rule at practice, but they have been training for a weekend in which part of the team will travel to play Salve Regina University and the other will play in an individual tournament at Cornell.