The men’s and women’s tennis teams have been busy. They played nine total matches in the first two and a half weeks of April—five for the men and four for the women. Four wins for the men and three wins for the women bring their respective season records to 11-6 and 9-8 so far.
On April 6, the men played Trinity College in a home match. Winning 7-2 in the overall head-to-head, the Judges won handily in five singles and two doubles matches. The women played an away match at Trinity the next day, coming back from an initial 1-2 record in the doubles to win 6-3. Phoebe Tamaoki ’26 and Anastasia Sia ’25 had two close matches at fourth and fifth singles. Tamaoki came back from a set down to win 5-7, 7-5, 10-5. Sia eked out her match 6-2, 1-6, 6-2.
The men were also back in action on April 7. They played Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in an away match, winning 6-3 overall. After three successful doubles matches, Brandeis split their singles matches 3-3. Tommy Harrison ’26 won his second singles match in two tiebreakers. Hunter Levine ’23 won in a three-set match at sixth singles 2-6, 6-4, 6-3. Alex Merson ’26 also proved successful in fourth singles, winning 6-1, 6-1.
Both the men and women also played Tufts University, and each lost 2-7 overall. For the women, the two wins came in close three-set matches. Rebecca Suarez ’26 won in first singles 6-4, 3-6, 10-7, and Sia won in fifth singles with the same score.
Out of seven matches, the defeated men played four very tight matches. Merson and Chen Liang ’24 went down 7-8 (3-7) in third doubles. Dylan Walters ’24, Harrison and Liang lost in three-sets. Liang played only tiebreakers before eventually losing 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (5-7), 5-10.
The men also played The Coast Guard Academy and North Carolina (NC) Wesleyan University, winning 7-2 and 6-3. First and second singles went three-sets against the Coast Guard. Walters won 3-6, 6-4, 10-7, and Harrison lost 5-7, 6-1, 3-10. There were many close matches against N.C. Wesleyan, which also coincided with Brandeis’ Senior Day. All but one singles match went three sets, and two included tiebreakers. Harrison won 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-3) at second singles, and Merson won 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 6-4 at fourth singles.
The women played Wellesley College and Endicott College in back-to-back matches, winning 18 straight matches. In the match against Wellesley, first through fourth singles went three sets. In order, Bhakti Parwani ’25 won 3-6, 6-2, 6-1; Nancy Zhang ’26 won 4-6, 6-2, 6-0; Tamaoki won 6-1, 3-6, 6-4; Sia won 7-5, 2-6, 7-5.
Against Endicott, Brandeis dominated most sets, but there was one close match. Jiayi Zhang ’24 came back from a set down to win a sixth singles match 4-6, 7-5, 12-10.
Looking forward, the men and women will face opponents at the University Athletic Association Championships. Both teams will play Emory University in back-to-back matches. The women will face them on April 20, and the men will play them the following day.
