Women
In a NESCAC and Little Three rivalry grudge match last Saturday, Amherst’s women’s second-ranked tennis team traveled to Williamstown, Mass., to take on the first-ranked Ephs. The dual meet, which was a repeat of last year’s NCAA Div. III National Championship, ended with a sound 6-3 victory for Amherst.
After the Jeffs won last year’s NESCAC final 5-4 and Williams won 5-2 in the national championship, both teams were prepped to have this meeting turn into a serious contest. The Ephs took an early lead by winning decisively 8-1 on the second doubles court, and squeezing out a 9-8(3) win on the first court. Much of their luck would run out there though, as the Jeffs won the remaining third court doubles match 8-4 with the combination of senior Jill Wexler and first-year Caroline Richman taking control.
The singles matches would not fare nearly as well for the Ephs, as they only picked up one of the six contests. No. 1 seed Brittany Berckes fell 3-6 to Williams’ Grace Baljon in the first set, but won the following two sets 6-3, 7-6(4) to help lead the Jeffs. Carlissa King ’11 also fought hard on the third court, taking Nikki Reich to three sets and eventually finished off the 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 win.
The four through six singles courts all yielded two set victories as Amherst cruised through their opponents. Richman, Laura Danzig ’12, and Laken King ’11 all won their singles first sets 6-3, and by winning their second sets capped off the Williams defeat.
The women will compete at Middlebury College next weekend for a doubles tournament.
Men
The men’s team traveled to the three-day Dartmouth Invitational last weekend to face the top Div. III opponents along with a few Division I schools from around the region. These matches would prove to be a good way for the Amherst team to refine their play as the dual match season gets underway this weekend.
“Getting match tough happens, for me at least, only by playing matches that count. With that in mind, I would say that I find it easier to elevate my game in small increments,” said sophomore Austin Chaftez.
Put into Flight A, Chafetz would find singles success later in the weekend as he dropped his first match 6-3, 7-5 to Christian Conley of Marist, but then rallied to beat Eliot Jia of Middlebury College. He would certainly play a match that mattered as he went up again Williams’ No. 1 seed Nick Lebedoff and came out with a win.
Chaftez would team up with Priit Gross ’11 in doubles and would end up with two wins against Marist and Buffalo, and a close 8-6 loss to the Dartmouth College top doubles team.
Junior Tony Sheng picked up a pair of wins in Flight D against his Marist College and Boston University opponents, and the combination of sophomores Julian Camacho and Jon Thaler led to another two victories in Flight B of doubles.
While a few select members will travel to Bates College for the Wallach Invitational this weekend, most of the men’s team will face Case Western University, Swarthmore College, Carnegie Mellon University, Rochester University and Kenyon University this weekend in dual matches to mark the end of the fall season.