This week the Brandeis men’s tennis team lost its final two regular-season matches as well as the opening round of the UAA championship.
On Thursday morning the Judges faced 17th-ranked Washington University in the first round of the UAA championships in Florida. The Judges were only able to earn one point as Washington easily dispatched Brandeis 8-1.
The Judges’ sole point of the contest came at No. 2 doubles in which Josh Jordan ’13 and Steven Milo ’13 defeated Parker Chang and Kareem Farah 8-6. The Judges came close to winning two other points but could not prevail in either of them. In No. 1 singles Milo lost 6-4, 6-4 and in No. 6 singles Michael Secular ’15 fell 6-4, 6-3.
The loss drops the Judges to 4-13 on the season; however, eight of their 13 losses came at the hands of nationally ranked teams or Division I opponents.
On Monday, Brandeis traveled to Tufts for the final match of the regular season. Unfortunately, they were unable to defeat Tufts, falling 6-3.
In the match, all three of the Judges’ points came from juniors. In No. 2 doubles, Jordan and Milo defeated Ben Barad and Sam Laber 8-4. The Judges had close calls at both No. 1 and No. 3 doubles but could not win either as they fell 8-6 in No. 1 doubles and 9-8 (9-7) in No. 3 doubles.
In singles action, Milo defeated Barad 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 in No. 1 singles and Jordan beat Andrew Lutz 6-2, 6-4 in No. 2 singles to give the Judges a brief 3-2 lead. Unfortunately, the Judges lost at No. 3, 4, 5 and 6 singles as Tufts came away with the victory.
In the first game of the week, the Judges lost 10-5 to Division I opponent Bryant College. With both teams using their entire rosters, Bryant was able to use their superior depth and talent at the bottom of the roster to earn the victory; however, if the match had been scored using traditional Division 3 rules, with the top six singles and top three doubles teams competing, Brandeis would have won 5-4.
A group of first-years earned three of the Judges’ five points. In No. 2 doubles, Alec Siegel ’15 and Secular earned an 8-4 win over Vidith Huot and Joshua Rubinstein. In singles, Secular also earned a victory in No. 4 singles, defeating Juan Gonzalez-Paz 6-3, 6-0 and Ben Fine ’15 defeated Rubinstein 7-6, 6-3 in No. 6 singles.
Jordan was involved in the other two match victories for the Judges. In No. 1 doubles, Jordan and Milo defeated Ernesto Arguello and Gonzalez-Paz 8-4, while in No. 1 singles, Jordan dispatched Zachary Morris 6-2, 6-4.
Evan Berner ’14 and Matthew Zuckerman ’14 came close to winning at No. 4 doubles but ultimately fell 9-7. Additionally, Zuckerman battled hard in No. 8 singles before losing 7-5, 6-3. Jon Ostrowsky ’13 dropped a first set tiebreaker at No. 9 singles and eventually lost 7-6 (7-1) 6-0.
