Women
In sunny California, the Jeffs opened their spring season with a solid 6-3 victory over Cornell University. They went on to steamroll Pomona-Pitzer College 8-1, losing their only match in the No. 1 doubles spot. The top doubles pair of junior Brittany Berckes and sophomore Natasha Brown were narrowly defeated by the defending Div. III singles national champion Siobhan Finicane and Olivia Muesse.
Claremont McKenna College also proved to be no match for Amherst. The Jeffs shut out the Athenas 9-0. Sophomore Laken King served up double bagels (6-0, 6-0) for her opponent as the No. 6 singles player for Amherst.
The Jeffs’ next match, against Azusa Pacific University, was a close call. Amherst doubles struggled this time around, with the pair of first-year Laura Danzig and junior Jill Wexler taking the only doubles victory. The Jeffs’ singles helped the team bounce back to a claim a narrow victory (5-4). Berckes and Laken King came through in tough three-set matches.
Amherst tallied another convincing win (7-2) over the University of Redlands. Berckes and Brown clinched the only doubles win for the team, but the Jeffs swept all six singles matches. Rounding out their last match of spring break, the women took a 6-1 victory from Cal-State Fullerton. The Jeffs have a 7-1 overall record and return to the courts at Hamilton College next Saturday.
Carlissa King ’11 said that the team’s outlook on the new season is optimistic. “The fall season was great, although not perfect, so we are really striving for perfection this spring. So far, as a team this spring, we continue to achieve success on the court, especially during spring break in California, where we won all of our matches against schools in all divisions. We hope to win as many matches as possible this spring and, in the end, hopefully capture a national championship.”
Men
Despite a grueling schedule of 13 matches in just 6 days, the men’s tennis team dropped only four matches during spring break. The Jeffs started off the spring season a bit rusty, losing 6-3 to both Azusa Pacific University and Vanguard University.
Amherst served up more confidence in the next two matches, trumping California Lutheran University 7-2 and beating University of La Verne 8-1. The top half of the squad swept the singles matches against Cal-Lutheran, while the younger players on the roster flattened La Verne. The Jeffs also claimed a solid win over the University of Redlands 7-2 but could not overcome national powerhouse Concordia University — eventually falling 9-0. Amherst rebounded with a shutout of its own over Chapman University and taking another victory over Occidental College 7-2.
The Jeffs continued their winning streak for the next four matches against Whittier College (8-1), Hope University (6-3), Caltech (9-0) and Pomona College (8-1). Their last opponent of the spring break trip was Claremont-Mudd-Scripps College in the finals of the Stag-Hen Invitational. Daniel Kim ’10 and Andrew Jung ’12 at the No. 3 doubles spot and Priit Gross ’11 at No. 4 singles helped ease the final score in a 7-2 defeat.
“I think the team has great potential this year,” said sophomore Moritz Koenig. “We have added many strong first-years to an already very competitive team. We hope that this will allow us to compete for the NESCAC title, as well as for the national championship. Matches that stand out are the duals with top NESCAC opponents Bowdoin, Trinity, Middlebury and of course Williams. We have managed to produce strong doubles teams and our goal is to use doubles play to put us in a position to win all matches.”