All streaks come to an end at some point, as it did for mens tennis on the road trip. What few expected was for tennis to fall with a thud on the road swing, losing all three road matches against Bates, Colby and finally Bowdoin.
The trip began with a visit to Lewiston, Maine last Saturday to take on Coach Ben Lamannas alma mater Bates, the 4th-ranked team in the Northeast. Brandeis began by quickly dropping the doubles point, winning no matches (4-8, 3-8, 2-8), and that trend continued in singles play. Sam Jonas 07 fought hard after losing the first set and could not overcome that deficit, falling in two sets: 1-6, 5-7. The lone Brandeis victory came from Michael Vulfovich 07 in the second match as he easily defeated his opponent Tristan Beach 6-4, 6-2.
Without much respite, Brandeis headed down to Waterville to take on Colby, #13 in the region. Just like in Lewiston, the Judges fell 1-6. The doubles matches were tough but ultimately not enough. What was notable in the doubles was that, in a minor lineup alteration, Hersel was partnered with Silverman as opposed to his usual doubles mate, Hart Comess-Daniels 06. There were some tough matches in singles play. Jonas took the first game 6-3 but dropped the next two 1-6, 0-6. Vulfovich managed to force a tie breaker in the second set but was defeated 3-6, 5-7. The one win came in the sixth match as Chris Hersel '06 took down his opponent 6-1, 6-2.
The road trip wrapped up in Brunswick on Tuesday facing Bowdoin, #7 in the Northeast. Unlike the other games, Brandeis went down largely with out a whimper, getting swept 0-7. Doubles play saw a shake-up with Hersel paired with Vulfovich in the second doubles game and Comess-Daniels with Scott Schulman '09 in the third one. Hersel/Vulfovich managed to take the second match 8-7 after the Jonas/Beiber pairing dropped the first match 4-8, but the Comess-Daniels/Schulman pairing fizzled in a 5-8 defeat, giving the point to Bowdoin.
Singles play was witness to another shake-up as Vulfovich and Jonas swapped places as 1-2. Vulfovich managed to put up a fight in his match, losing the first set 5-7 and taking the second 6-3 before faltering and losing the third 1-6. Also forcing three set matches were Hersel in the fourth (7-5, 3-6, 3-6) and Schulman in the fifth (3-6, 7-5, 4-6).
The road losses drop Brandeis record to 6-7, putting them below .500. The mens team has time to regroup and a recommended prescription for a slide is a nice home-stand. Brandeis faces #10 regionally-ranked NYU on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. and Salve-Regina on the 10th at 3:00 p.m.
