In the first round of singles play, all six of the Jeffs won their matches to advance to the second round. Senior Tal Avrahami ousted Williams' Bret Thatcher in three sets and then met up with teammate and number one seed of the tournament Zack Lerner '09. The match between the two Jeffs was close but Lerner came out on top over his doubles partner with a 6-4, 6-4 victory. Lerner then had a couple of easy matches against Middlebury College's Andrew Peters (6-1, 6-2) and another Eph, Jeremy Weinberger, (6-2, 6-2) to continue on to the semifinals.
The semifinals was the time for the Ephs to avenge their losses to Lerner. Eph Will Greenberg, seeded third in the tourney, took out the Jeff in a three-set match, with Lerner taking the first set 6-4 and then losing the next two sets 6-3 and 6-2, respectively. Also representing the Jeffs were senior co-captains Jeff Wan and Mike Mintz. In the first round, Wan took out Noah Buntman from Bowdoin College without losing a game then continued to win his next match before losing, like Lerner, in a close three-set match.
In the other half of the bracket, Mintz played three players from the NESCAC. Mintz dominated Williams' Gary Simonette and then Nick White from Trinity College in three sets. "I was happy with getting into the round of 16, I think Mike Mintz was as well, but I'm sure both of us wanted to get further in the event," said Wan. "I'm just going to have to put in more work to compete against players from Williams and Middlebury, I think we all have to."
In the quarterfinals, Mintz met up with the number four seed from Bates, where he was eliminated. Sophomore Tristan Biesecker and senior Geoff Schwartz both breezed by their first round matches but lost to top seeds in the the next round.
In the doubles part of the tournament, the two Amherst pairs made it to the quarterfinals. Lerner and Avrahami, seeded number one for the tournament, won their matches handily until they met up with a Williams pair and lost 9-7. The other duo, Schwartz and Wan, defeated teams from Tufts University and Trinity but had to withdraw from the tournament because Schwartz suffered from an injury. "The ITAs were a good opportunity to scope out some of the competition we will have in our upcoming spring season of dual matches," said Avrahami. "While some of our guys were able to post solid victories, the weekend served as a reminder that we have to keep working hard to improve."