The men’s tennis team received the ITA Steve Wilkinson Sportsmanship Award on Friday. Coming a month after the ITA Division III National Men’s Team Indoor Championship, the award acknowledges the team that showed respectful and positive attitudes while maintaining a rigorous level of competition. Even with their losing record at the tournament in February the Judges were composed and honest on the court.
This week started off streaky for the men’s team in a tight match against Denison, ranked 16th to the Judges’ ninth. Doubles continued to prove dominant for Brandeis as they swept the three matches. Adam Tzeng ’22 and Jeff Chen ’22 maintained their three-match win streak, beating their opponents 8-2. Colin Fox ’25 and Dylan Walters ’24 continued their impressive pairing in second doubles winning 8-4. Singles proved much more difficult as Denison went on to win five matches in straight sets. Playing at third singles, Fox came back after losing the first set 1-6 to eke out a win in a tight 10-8 tiebreaker.
The next day the Judges were at it again, playing the University of Rochester at home. This match-up proved fruitful for Brandeis as they beat their opponents 7-2. After winning all the doubles again, the Judges swept the first three singles matches securing the win. The final three singles matches were reduced to eight-game pro-sets to speed up the match. The University of Rochester won two of those three matches. Colt Tegtmeier ’22, playing at fourth singles, lost a close match in a tiebreaker 7-8 (2-7) and Hunter Levine ’23 lost in fifth singles 5-8. Aaron Basye ’24 handily beat his opponent 8-3 in sixth singles.
While the men’s team solidly beat Rochester, the women’s team had less luck. In fact, they were plagued by issues somewhat beyond their control. With the current spike in COVID-19 cases and quarantines at Brandeis, the women’s team had only four players at the ready in this match. This meant that they forfeited third doubles and fifth and sixth singles. Out of the six playable matches Brandeis won four. Anastasia Sia ’25 dominated in both the singles and doubles losing only four games in both. After winning at second doubles with Jiayi Zhang ’24 8-4, Sia won 12 straight games for her win at third singles. Her doubles partner also fared well, winning 6-2 after Rochester secured their win.
COVID-19 wasn’t the only thing working against the Judges. Bhakti Parwani ’25 experienced an injury during her doubles match, compromising her showing. While she and her partner Ella Subramanian ’24 were able to pull it out 8-7 (7-3), they both fell in their singles matches. At first singles, the injured Parwani lost 4-6, 3-6 and Subramanian lost at second 1-6, 1-6.
The split week from the men’s team brings their season record to 7-3 and they enjoy a break until April 2 when they play an away match with Tufts. The loss for the women’s team brings their season record to 3-6 and they play Babson in an away match on Sunday, March 27.
