On the road against a division II opponent and missing their number 2 and 3 singles match players, there was not much left for the Judges to answer with as they fell 3-6 to Assumption College. Without them, and even with them, Coach Ben Lamana knew this would be a tough match.
Assumption is a very good team. Theyre a division II team, theyve got a lot of talent, theyve got a lot of good New England players. We scrimmaged last year and they beat us 7-0. Theyre very talented for sure, Lamana said.
Sam Jonas 07 and Mike Vulfovitch 07 picked up the lone doubles win for Brandeis, defeating Assumptions number one pairing of Antonio Recalde and Collin Vero-Cassnte 9-7. The pairings of Jordan Beiber 07/Scott Schulman 09 and the all-rookie combo Alex Naystat 10/Vasin Vongcharoenrat 10 fell 4-8 and 1-8 respectively.
In singles play, Brandeis was left without Vulfovitch, their number two player, due to shoulder inflammation and number three player Adam Sher 07, who was hospitalized after a case of food poisoning. As a result, Coach Lamana was forced to shuffle his line-up, moving Schulman from number four to number two, Beiber into the number three spot and the five and six spots were filled with Vongcharoenrat and Scott Feinberg 08. They were all no match for their opponents, each of them falling in two sets. Picking up the lone victories in singles play for the Judges were number one Sam Jonas over Recalde 6-4, 6-0, and the rookie Neystat in his first collegiate match, playing the number four spot as he defeated Assumption rookie Vero-Cassnte 6-4, 6-3.
Despite the defeat, Coach Lamana found a lot of positives to take away from the match, especially the play of Jonas. It was unbelievable, it was the Sam Jonas I hadnt seen before. This kid, Antonio Recalde from Paraguay is just amazingly talented hits an unbelievable ball and Sam was really awesome, it was really good to see him play and see him play like I hadnt see him play before.
The one thing that Coach Lamana did see as a flaw with the team was one that has been a concern since the beginning of the season: Doubles play. Second match in a row that weve lost going into the singles down 2-1;
this is unfortunate and sort of our own faults. Doubles is so huge, you have to control the doubles.
Jonas and Vulfovitch were invited to participate at the ITA Championships Sept. 29 through Oct. 1. The rest of the team in the meantime will prepare for their Oct. 7 home match against Bowdoin. The Bowdoin match is one Coach Lamana is excited about and he plans to use the time to address the doubles play.
Bowdoins a big match, thats going to be a fun match. In the upcoming weeks, its going to be a lot of doubles work for sure. Working on your serve, working on your return, those are the two most important aspects of playing doubles. Thats 66 percent of the shots in doubles. From there, it's aggressiveness, getting the high ball and just crushing it.
