The men’s and women’s tennis teams have been busy playing a packed schedule the past two weeks.
March 27, the men’s team traveled to Babson Park, Massachusetts for a match against the 12th-ranked Amherst College. Nick White ’11 played No. 1 for the Judges, and his match against Amherst’s Austin Chafetz was looking grim as he dropped the first set 0-6. However, White came back with 7-5 and 6-4 victories to take the win. Unfortunately, his teammates weren’t as successful, and only No. 6 Steven Milo ’13 and the No. 1 doubles team of White and Simon Miller ’11 claimed additional victories as Brandeis fell 6-3.
The men returned to Babson Park April 1, and this time the opponent and the result were decidedly different. The Judges made April Fools out of Babson College, sweeping the competition 9-0. The six Judges who played singles didn’t drop a single set, and they defeated Babson by a margin of 74 total games won to 18. The highlights came from White, Miller and Seth Rogers ’10, who only lost one game each.
Two days later, they traveled to Tufts and pulled out a 5-4 nail-biter. Tufts won the doubles competition 2-1, with Brandeis’ sole victory coming from a strong 8-1 performance by Milo and Dave Yovanoff ’13. However, Brandeis was saved by the top and the bottom of its singles lineup, as Nos. 1 and 2 White and Miller and Nos. 5 and 6 Milo and Fred Rozenshteyn ‘13 all won.
“We’re happy with all our guys fighting really hard to get us some victories,” Milo said. “We’re looking forward to the UAA tournament.”
Against Bryant on Thursday, April 8, the score and winner were the same, but the process of getting there was different. This time, only two Brandeis singles players could win, No. 3 Milo (4-6, 7-5, 6-3) and No. 5 Rozenshteyn (6-4, 6-3). The Judges won the match on the strength of the doubles; three straight victories left Brandeis leading 5-4.
“I think doubles is going to be really big…going into the next three matches,” White said.
The women’s team was just as busy, starting their break schedule April 1 at Babson. Coming in ranked 28th in Division III, the women’s team was almost as dominant as the men, winning 8-1. Again, the singles team didn’t lost a single set, and the sole defeat came when Faith Broderick ’13 and Rachel Rosman ’11 dropped the No. 1 doubles match by a close 9-7 margin.
Wellesley, however, proved to be far too much for the Judges to handle; playing the day after the Babson match, Brandeis fell 7-2. Rosman and Mackenzie Gallegos ’11 won singles matches from the Nos. 2 and 4 positions, but the Judges lost the rest of their matches.
Playing their third match in three days, the Brandeis women struggled again against Amherst on April 3. Rosman got her third consecutive singles victory, but the best that any other player could do was a 6-4 set loss amidst a whitewashing that featured five separate 6-0 sets. The three doubles teams lost by a combined 24-3 margin in total games, and Brandeis headed home with a 8-1 loss.
The team didn’t get much rest, however; on April 6, the Judges traveled to Cambridge for what would become a thrilling 5-4 victory against MIT. Ariana Sanai ’10 and Nina Levine ’12 combined for Brandeis’ only doubles victory by winning 8-5, and Levine followed it up by winning her singles match 6-3, 6-1 from the No. 5 position. Gallegos contributed a strong 6-1, 6-1 victory, and Broderick and Sarah Richman ’12 also won to send Brandeis home on top.
The women now have an even 7-7 record, and they finish their regular schedule by traveling to Connecticut College on April 11 and Tufts on April 13. The men are 8-6, and they’re hosting Trinity on April 11.
