In the first two days of the tournament, Amherst breezed by the competition. The first-seeded doubles team of senior co-captain Alicia Menezes and Brittany Berckes '10 won in their next three rounds 8-1, 8-6 and 8-2 to reach the finals. In the third doubles flight, and also seeded first, senior captains Laura Stein and Jen Murphy won each of their first two matches 8-2. In the semifinals, they were presented with a little more of a challenge, but rose to the occasion for a 9-8 (5) victory. In the second doubles flight, senior Monica Snyder and Jill Wexler '10 were upset in the first round by an 8-4 score.
The singles play went well for Amherst on Friday and Saturday, as all players cruised to reach the semifinal round after a first round bye. The Jeffs' participants, in the one through six flights were as follows: Menezes, Laken King '11, Berckes, Snyder, Carlissa King '11 and Murphy. With the Jeffs success on Saturday, the stage was set for a very exciting Sunday. The final rounds were almost exclusively comprised of the NESCAC, particularly Amherst and Williams Colleges.
On Sunday, with worries about the weather, the tournament was concluded at Mt. Holyoke. Beginning with the finals of the doubles, the Jeffs had mixed results. The national champion duo of Berckes and Menezes proved to be tough once again, winning 9-7 over Williams' top pair for the championship. At the third spot, Stein and Murphy could not overcome a slow start as they lost 8-2 in the finals to the number three Williams team.
In the singles, Snyder saved her best tennis of the year for the final weekend, taking home the championship in the fourth flight. Snyder did not drop a set in the tournament, and won the final round 6-4, 6-4 over Nikki Reich of Williams. The win was important for Snyder, having lost to Reich just two weeks prior.
"Monica knew what she had to do to beat Nikki Reich this time," said Stein. "And she really rose to the occasion. It was a great way for her to end the fall season by avenging her loss from a couple weeks before and giving her confidence for next season."
Murphy also won a singles championship on the weekend. After reaching the semifinals without losing a game, Murphy finally met some competition in the final round. After dropping the first set 4-6 to Annie Schneidman of Williams, Murphy fought back to win the next two sets 7-5 and 6-1 for the championship.
In the number five singles flight, Carlissa King became the third Jeff to reach the finals in singles play. After defeating her Brandeis opponent 7-5, 6-1 in the semifinals, King was beat by Ashley Parsons of Williams 6-0, 6-0. In the number two and number three singles flight, Laken King and Berckes both fell in the semifinal round in straight sets. Unfortunately for the Jeffs, Menezes had to default her semifinal match in the number one singles flight after injuring her back in the doubles championship.
"Overall we had a successful weekend at NEWITTS against tough competition from all over New England," said Murphy. "To see the other teams performing well in many of the draws motivates us to work that much harder during this off-season."
On the tournament, the Jeffs' three championships were second to one team: Williams. Williams, which had four titles in the tournament, were defeated by the Jeffs 5-4 just a couple of weeks ago, will serve as their greatest competition in not only the NESCAC but possibly on the national level. Amherst hates to be outshone by Williams, but it shows that they cannot be complacent in the off-season and will have to work hard.
With the New England Tournament concluding the fall season, NEWITTS can serve as motivation in the fall as Amherst looks to improve and get healthy for the spring. Having reached the National Championship finals last season, the Jeffs will have high expectations to live up to in the spring season.
"After a great fall season, we all have the incentive to keep it up and keep improving," said Menezes. "Players are made in the offseason and we are all looking foward to working hard this winter. There are some tough teams out there that want nothing more than to beat us but if we work hard enough and want it more, then only good results can follow, maybe even a national championship."