The men’s tennis team’s season has gone into full swing as they traveled to Williamstown, Mass., for the Willson/ITA Regional New England Championships this weekend. The team sent an eight-man squad to take on some of the area’s best talent. At Williams College, the Jeffs had two singles players advance to the quarterfinals, and a doubles team make it to the semi-finals.
The Amherst highlight of the three-day tournament would turn out to be sophomore Andrew Jung, who, in addition to upsetting the tournament No. 1 seed, would bring back an old rivalry from last year in the round that followed. As these would be the first real matches of the season, the players were trying to gauge their individual games against the competition.
Jung was pleased with his performance at the tournament. “It’s early in the season, so I wasn’t sure how well I’d play, but I felt I would get a few good matches under my belt,” said Jung.
There is no question he got a few good matches. After his season-opening easy 6-0, 6-1 victory, it took three sets to beat his Middlebury opponent in the second round. Jung’s next match faced him against the tournament No. 1 seed from Williams. In the hard-fought 6-3, 7-5 Amherst victory, Jung bested Nick Lebedoff to move on the quarterfinals. The win was one that will stick for quite some time.
“At the beginning I was kind of nervous, but also excited to be playing the best player in the tournament,” said Jung. “I decided that I had nothing to lose. I went out there worked on the things Coach told me to work on, and everything just seemed to fall in place. That was probably one the best matches I’ve played here in college so far.”
Andrew Jung’s weekend was just getting started. His next match brought up old tennis emotions as Jung’s quarterfinal opponent was Andrew Lee from Middlebury, whom Jung is quite familiar with.
“Last year, for our first meeting during the regular season, it was Amherst and Middlebury fighting for the NESCAC championship No. 1 seed, and it eventually came down to me and him,” said Jung. “I had match point, but was severely cramping in my legs, and it proved to be a very long and exhausting match.”
That three-set duel was only one of the exciting matches the two have played against each other last season.
“This was our fourth meeting since then, and it seems to be always close. I think our game styles match closely,” detailed Jung. His Middlebury foe beat him in this meeting though, as the Jeff fell 6-4, 6-2.
Tournament No. 2 seed Austin Chafetz ’11 earned a first round bye, and then cruised through two wins to set him in the quarterfinals as well. He would face Felix Sun from Williams, but would not be able to pull off the win as he suffered a hard fought 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 loss. He would fare even better in the doubles rounds as he paired with sophomore Robby Sorrel to reach the semi-finals, including an impressive 8-4 win over Bowdoin’s tournament No. 1 seed pair.
Advancing to the third round were singles players Wes Waterman ’12 and Mark Kahan ’13. The play of Mark Kahan was especially impressive considering his strong placing right out of the gate.
“Going into the tournament, we expected him to do well, didn’t expect him to be fighting some of the top guys from last year, or go three sets with the eventual runner up,” explained Jung.
The team seemed pleased how well their young players played overall. “First-year Alex Kim also played well. It was good to see that we picked up some good players that can play with the best of them,” added Jung.
The team picks up play again at the Dartmouth Invitational this weekend. The women’s team will travel to Williams on Saturday for their matchup against the rival Ephs.