There are some things in life that are certain. For instance, death, taxes and the Williams College mens’ tennis team beating the Amherst College mens’ tennis team. Or at least that’s been the case for over a decade now, and this weekend provided more of the same, as the ninth-ranked Ephs defeated the 14th-ranked Lord Jeffs 6-3 in Williamstown.
The thing is, though, this year was supposed to be different. Amherst came into the year returning a very strong five- man senior class. In addition to that, the team brought in first-year sensation Sean Doerfler, who was expected to contribute to the singles lineup, along with a handful of other promising first-years. Also, new Head Coach Chris Garner brought his considerable experience both as a coach and as a professional player. Despite Williams’ lofty national ranking, it looked like this might be the year Amherst finally got the monkey off of its back.
Unfortunately, the injury bug began to bite the Jeffs early and often. First sophomore Tristan Biesecker went down due to complications from Crohn’s disease, an auto-immune disease that attacks the intestines, and had to receive surgery. Next, senior Geoff Schwartz suffered an ankle injury that severely limited his mobility and prevented him from playing singles. All of a sudden the Jeffs were down a full third of their projected singles lineup. Nevertheless, the team performed well, even beating 12th-ranked DePauw University. Coming into the weekend, the Jeffs were still hoping that they might have a shot.
Amherst managed to hang tight through the doubles matches. Although they were not able to take a lead into singles play, seniors Mike Mintz and Tal Avrahami teamed up for an 8-5 victory to prevent the Ephs from gaining the 3-0 edge. The team needed to take four of the six singles matches to earn the victory, but the going was tough and, in the end, only co-captains Mintz and Wan were able to hang on for victories.
“Once again I feel like we’re left with a lot of ‘could haves’ and ‘should haves’ but we came a little bit short once again,” said Wan. “We’ll have to work a little harder to play a little better, and I think we’re capable of doing that.”
The loss against Williams dropped the team to 6-4 overall and 1-1 in the NESCAC. The rest of the weekend, however, brought more encouraging results, as the team bounced back to whallop Brandeis University 8-1 and post a good showing against Div. II Concordia College, with Wan even managing to steal a match.
The team now has to look past their disappointment at losing to Williams and try to take care of business against the rest of their NESCAC schedule. They have difficult matches against Trinity and Colby Colleges coming up this weekend, and will face only non-conference opponents the rest of the way. If they play well, they still have a shot of garnering a high seed in the conference tournament, and perhaps even getting another shot at the Ephs.
“I hope that isn’t the last time I get to play Williams,” said Wan. “My team and I have worked very hard this year and I hope we get another shot at them. I would love nothing more than to get another chance to play them in the NESCACs or NCAAs.”