Since the start of March, both the Brandeis men’s and women’s tennis teams have played two matches. The women faced the #23-ranked Bowdoin College Polar Bears and the #17-ranked Babson College Beavers. On the men’s side, they hosted Franklin Pierce College and Nichols College. The women unfortunately lost both of their matches, but the men excitingly came away with two dominant overall wins against their opponents.
Starting with the women, their time facing Bowdoin on March 2 was a hard-fought battle as several matches were sent to third sets due to tenacious comebacks by your Judges. In doubles, the Polar Bears won 6-0, at #2 and 6-2, at #3, to clinch the doubles point. Despite this, Judges’ Bhakti Parwani ’25 and Rebecca Suarez ’25 out-scored their opponents, 6-4, earning the top spot in doubles. In singles, Suarez suffered a tiebreaker loss 6-7 (3-7) at #1, but bounced back 6-1, 6-3 to win. Parwani and Chahana Budhbhatti ‘27 also managed to last until the third round, but both lost 2-6, 6-4, 2-6 at #3 and 6-4, 4-6, 2-6 at #3 respectively. Meanwhile, Nancy Zhang ‘26 and ‘27 suffered losses as well, but at game #5 Anastasia Sia ‘25 saw a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory. Together with Suarez at #1, these gave the Judges two points on the board, against the Polar Bears’ five. Despite their hard-earned victories, Brandeis ultimately was edged by Bowdoin with a three-point loss.
A week later, on March 8, the women’s team faced off against the Babson Beavers. The doubles matches got off to a quick start as Sia and Ceclia Denis ‘25 won 6-2 at #3. However, as the morning went on, the other doubles matches did not go as well for the Judges, with Suarez and Parwani falling 4-6 at #1, and Zhang and Budhbhatti fell 5-7 at #2. In singles, Brandeis clinched three wins, starting with Suarez clinching 7-5, 6-4 at #1, and Sia leaving #5 with a 6-3 6-1 victory. The match at #3, however, proved to be a real nail-biter as Budhbhatti faced off against Babson’s Chaniel Soffer for over three hours. The first set, 6-7, went to tiebreaker, with Soffer emerging victorious 0-7. In the second set, Budhbhatti and Soffer traded points until Budhbhatti managed to eke out a 5-4 lead, which grew to 6-4 at the end and forcing a third set. At the third set, however, Soffer took an early lead, with Budhbhatti only managing just two points against the Beavers’ six. Ultimately, this was an incredibly close match, but Babson’s victory in doubles was enough to push them 4-3 against the Judges.
As for the men’s team, on March 2, they faced off against Franklin Pierce College. The Judges started the day by winning all three doubles matches in quick succession. At #1, Daniel Shemesh ‘28 and Dylan Waters (GRAD) scored 6-1. At #2, Pierce Gabrett ‘27 and Aidan Wang-Fan ‘28 cliched 6-2. And at #3, Huasen Dong ‘27 and Benjamin Kotzen ‘28 won another 6-1. The Judges obviously had a lot of momentum and they were able to keep this going into the singles, winning five of six matches. The Judges’ singular loss happened when Wang-Fan forced a 4-6, 6-7 at #4 to a tiebreaker, only for his opponent to clinch 4-7. Doubtlessly, the most exciting match of the day was at #5 as Kotzen faced off against the Ravens’ Hugo Diaz-Avila in a marathon three-set match. Kotzen initially suffered a 4-6 loss in the first set, but the first-year persevered in set two, ultimately scoring 6-3 and forcing a grueling super-tiebreaker in which Kotzen ultimately came out 17-15. With the Ravens’ single victory, the final score was 6-1 for the Judges.
As if that wasn’t enough, the men replicated their performance on the ninth against Nichols, once again taking a 6-1 victory over the Bison. The Bisons’ only point was won in the #2 doubles match where Gabrett and Wang-Fan fell 3-6. But at #1, Shemesh and Waters scored 6-2. Simultaneously, at #3, Dong and Kotzen also won by 6-2. The Judges kept rolling into the singles, winning every match against Nichols. As before, Kotzen forced a match into a super-tiebreaker, this time against Enzo Matos. After initially falling 5-7, Kotzen struggled through set two, but ultimately managed a 7-6 victory over his opponent. This forced a tiebreaker in which Kotzen won by an extra point from before, 7-5. But Kotzen finished the day strong with a 10-2 victory over Nichols.
Looking forward, the women will face Colby on March 16, while the men will face off against NYU on the same day.
