The men’s tennis team had a rough week, losing two of its three matches against NESCAC opponents to drop its record to 8-7 overall and 2-3 in conference. Only one weekend remains for the Jeffs to try to improve their seed heading into the year-ending NESCAC Tournament.
On Thursday, the 13th-ranked Jeffs traveled to Hartford, Conn. to take on the 23rd-ranked Bantams of Trinity College. The doubles matches, a weakness all year for Amherst, did not give the team a strong start. Only the senior team of Mike Mintz and Tal Avrahami was able to pull out their match, winning the pro-set 8-6.
Down 2-1 heading into the singles matches, things began to look up for Amherst when Mintz and Zach Lerner ’09 won the second and first singles, respectively, in straight sets. The bottom of the lineup did not fare so well. At third singles Sean Doerfler ’11 fell in straight sets, as did Daniel Kim ’10, playing number six. With the score standing at 4-3 in favor of the Bantams, the Jeffs needed to take the remaining matches to earn the win. Senior Jeff Wan and first-year Moritz Koenig had both battled their way into third sets, but neither player was able to hold on for a win. Wan fell 6-0 in the final set while Koenig went down 6-2. Trinity took the overall win by a score of 6-3.
The Jeffs returned home on Saturday to face the unranked Mules of Colby College. Things went more smoothly, as Amherst cruised through the doubles matches and won five of the six singles matches in straight sets. In the lone closely contested match of the day, Doerfler lost a tie-breaker for the third set to give Colby their only point of the competition.
The very next day, the team ratcheted up the level of competition once again, this time taking on 19th-ranked Bowdoin College. Once again, close matches would prove to be the Jeffs’ Achilles heel. The doubles got off to a rough start when the one winning team from the Trinity match, Avrahami and Mintz, fell quickly 8-3. Both of the other two teams, however, were in dog-fights and it looked briefly as though both might be able to come away with victories. Unfortunately, both Lerner and Kim, and Koenig and Geoff Schwartz ’08 lost by the narrowest margin possible, 9-8. These disheartening results predictably did not carry over well into the singles play. Both Lerner and Mintz, the team’s top two singles players, dropped their matches in straight sets, allowing Bowdoin to seal the victory 5-0.
Although last weekend was certainly a wake-up call for the Jeffs, they still have time to recover and make another run into the NCAA Tournament. Next weekend will bring stiff competition, with a road match against defending NESCAC champion and perennial national contender Middlebury College on the docket for Saturday. Sunday, however, brings the prospect of a less formidable foe in the form of the Tufts University Jumbos. That match will take place at home at noon. With a win in one or both of those matches, Amherst will have a chance to improve their seeding heading into the NESCAC Tournament, which will be held the weekend of the 25th at Middlebury. “Things didn’t go the way we expected them to go in the last two weeks, but that’s no reason why any of us won’t keep competing,” said Wan. “My team—and especially the seniors—are looking forward to Middlebury and the NESCAC Tournament.”