Both the men’s and women’s tennis team concluded fall play this weekend, as the Lord Jeff squads will now take a hiatus from competititon until the spring, when they’ll tackle a more rigorous tournament schedule. While the women’s New England Women’s Intercolleegiate Tennis Tournament yielded no team results, the men’s five matches left them with a 3-2 record for the weekend.

Men

As the Jeffs finished off their season on a busy Fall Recess weekend, the final tally was 3-2 against a slew of tough non-conference teams. The men’s tennis team also faced top NESCAC talent in fall tournaments that will prove invaluable when conference play begins in the spring.

Early in the season, the team had glimpses of individual outstanding performance. Sophomores Austin Chafetz and Andrew Jung both had strong performances at the beginning of the season in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Men’s New England Championships. Both reaching the quarterfinals in singles, they accounted for quite a bit of damage to the bracket. Jung stepped up to take down the tournament top-seeded Nick Lebendoff of Williams College. Chafetz was upset-minded as well as he would pair up with sophomore Robby Sorrel and knock down the top-seeded doubles team from Bowdoin College.

The Dartmouth Invitational on Oct. 2-4 had mixed results for the men but saw some key victories. Chafetz went 2-1 in singles play, also knocking down Lebendoff of Williams in a tight match. Junior Tony Sheng also had a 2-1 day as he took down opponents from Marist College and Boston University.

The Fall Recess proved to be the greatest challenge yet, as the team would take to the road and split up to pack in five different college opponents over a short three-day period. On Saturday, Amherst split up and ran through Swarthmore College 9-0 and took down Case Western University 7-2. Sunday had the team split again as one half barely fell to Carnegie Mellon University 5-4, and the other half routed the University of Rochester 9-0. The team joined forces again at Kenyon College on Monday, putting up a fight, but lost again by that narrow 5-4 margin.

In addition to the strong play of Chafetz and Jung, first-year Mark Kahan has made his mark on the season, including going an impressive 6-0 in the final weekend. The fall season allowed the team to “see where they stack up against the conference and on the national scene,” according to Head Coach Chris Gardner. As the Jeffs prepare for their spring season, they will attempt to return to the NCAA championship match.

Women

Senior quad-captain Brittany Berckes matched up with sophomore Laura Danzig this past weekend to claim the title in the New England Women’s Intercollegiate Tennis Tournament (NEWITT). In the NEWITT tournament, the pairs played a doubles match followed by two single matches to determine which pair advances in the bracket. Berckes and Danzig were the top-ranked pair going into the tournament, and taking home their second straight doubles tournament victory after securing the top spot in the three-day Gail Smith Doubles Tournament hosted by Middlebury in the week prior.

Back-to-back doubles tournament wins along with an early season ITA women’s semifinal doubles and singles placing showed that Berckes is off to a great start this year, but the team’s sound 6-3 victory against Williams College on Oct. 3 proves that the team as a whole could fare well in the spring. The team won five out of six singles matches, with Berckes and Danzig only barely dropping the top doubles matchup in a tight 9-8(3) loss. After falling to Williams last spring in the NCAA title match, the team, much like the men’s, looks to also make a run and be back in the championship in May.