Amherst Head Coach Jackie Bagwell has always placed a strong emphasis on doubles play. It is little surprise, then, that the women’s tennis team performed well last weekend, when it traveled to Middlebury College to compete in the Gail Smith Doubles Classic. As the Jeffs know, in order to be the best, you have to beat the best, and the tournament gave Amherst an opportunity to play some of the NESCAC’s toughest competition.
“This weekend was a really successful tournament,” said sophomore Natasha Brown. After playing in the number-two doubles spot last season, Brown showed that she is up to the challenge of leading the team this year; she and two-time doubles national champion Brittany Berckes ’10 took home last weekend’s title for the Jeffs. The duo cruised through their first two rounds before finding familiar faces across the net in the quarterfinals. On the other side were sophomores Laken King and Amelia Bell, who had also won their bracket to reach the quarterfinals.
Though each team had defeated a Williams College pair along the way, only one of the Amherst pairs could advance to the semifinals. The match went as expected, with Berckes and Brown defeating their teammates, 8-4. The newly formed doubles team showed that they have gelled together quite nicely, and the two Jeffs went on to defeat a team from Tufts University in a tiebreaker in the semifinals.
In the final match, the Jeffs had another familiar—if less friendly—opponent in the number-one team from Williams College. But Berckes and Brown played tough, eventually edging the Ephs, 8-6.
“Our doubles team learned from last week’s mistakes and took care of business,” said Brown. “The tournament also gave us the opportunity to see and play this week’s competition against Williams College.”
A third Amherst doubles team also had success over the weekend, this time from the other side of the bracket. First-year Laura Danzig and junior Jill Wexler came out of their section of the draw to reach the quarterfinals. However, the duo fell in a close 8-6 decision to a talented Middlebury team. “I’m confident that our doubles teams this season are the best in the NESCAC,” said Berckes. “Anuja [Ankola ’09] and Laken almost took down the number one team from Williams, and Jill and [Danzig] won the consolation round. No other team had as many doubles’ wins as us this weekend.”
Confidence should be high for the Jeffs, as they are coming off of multiple doubles victories over the Ephs just a week before the two teams meet head-to-head at Amherst.
“We know what’s coming and we’re ready to take them down,” said a confident Brown.
If the Jeffs come out focused on Saturday and use what they learned from this past weekend, they should have no trouble taking the first of at least two meetings between the archrivals during the 2008-2009 season. “Doubles will be a very important factor this year,” said Berckes. “Many times, matches depend on one point that a doubles win could have given us. I’m confident that all of our players know the significance of the doubles matches and we will continue to work hard in practice so we can keep being the best.”