In three action-packed days of back-to-back matches, the men’s tennis team competed in a total of five different locations over Fall Break. The Jeffs performed solidly at the Wallach Invitational and posted four consecutive wins against highly-ranked teams. For its Fall Break trip, the team split the squad in half, with senior captain Zachary Lerner leading the top half of the lineup that went on to defeat Johns Hopkins University (6-3), Carnegie Mellon University (6-3) and Kenyon College (5-4). The other members of the team held their own at the Wallach Invitational and swept the doubles and singles matches at Wesleyan University (9-0).
Lerner emphasized that the team won with contributions from a number of younger players. “Our Fall Break trip was also a huge success because we were able to see some of the new faces step up against very tough competition and perform,” said Lerner ’09.
Newcomers Austin Chafetz ’12 and Priit Gross ’11 definitely proved their mettle against the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays. The two players, in addition to veteran Lerner, won their singles and doubles matches on Saturday, Oct. 11. Amherst also displayed an increasingly competitive edge in doubles play to complement their strong singles. The Jeffs took two out of three doubles matches and also tallied four singles wins out of their six played.
“I couldn’t have started my senior year off any better than with my win against No. 9 ranked David Maldow from Johns Hopkins,” said Lerner. “David is a player I grew up training with and someone I really respect, and to be able to beat him means that I can play with the best Div. III tennis has to offer.”
On the same day, the other half of the team competed as individuals in the Wallach Invitational at Bates College. Two Amherst players made it to the finals of their respective singles flights, but neither managed to post a victory in the championship match. In the B flight, Surainder Asokaraj ’12 split sets with Bowdoin’s Alex Caughron and lost in the tiebreaker (4-6, 6-2, 10-2). Tony Sheng ’11, playing in the C flight, lost narrowly in the finals in straight sets to Garrett Schuman of Tufts.
On Sunday, the Jeffs traveled from Johns Hopkins to Carnegie Mellon and defeated the Tartans by the same score that they had tallied against the Blue Jays. Lerner and Moritz Koenig ’11, in the No. 1 doubles spot, overpowered their opponents with a second consecutive win of 8-1. The second doubles pair, Daniel Kim ’10 and Andrew Jung ’12, also grabbed a win, 9-7. Singles play against the Tartans was filled with a number of closely matched games. Lerner said that the win against Carnegie Mellon’s No. 1 singles player was “the tightest three-set match” he has played in college. Chafetz, Jung and Gross brought up the total of singles victories to four.
On Monday, the other half of the team squashed the Wesleyan Cardinals, 9-0. Sophomore Tristan Biesecker helped Amherst keep Wesleyan scoreless by winning a three-set match in No. 6 singles play. On the same day, Lerner and the first half of the roster pulled off an impressive victory over Kenyon College. Although Amherst currently holds an ITA ranking of No. 15, the Jeffs were able to upset No. 9 Kenyon. Lerner and Koenig proved their doubles’ prowess by not losing a single game en route to defeating last year’s NCAA singles champion, Michael Greenberg, and his doubles partner Thomas Piskacek, by an 8-0 score.
Another highlight of the day was Kim’s three-set match against Joshua Stiles, which helped the Jeffs beat the Lords 5-4 overall.
“It was unbelievable,” said Kim of the nearly six-hour match. “I was down in the third set 1-5, love-40. I had given up hope as had my teammates. But I fought back somehow to win 7-6. I’ve never felt better after a tennis match, it was out of control.”
Even with only half of their lineup competing, the Jeffs have proven themselves to be contenders in every match. “We have one of the deepest teams in the NESCAC,” asserted Koenig.