To start off their spring season, both the Brandeis University men’s and women’s tennis teams left the cold Boston weather behind and got to embrace the California sunshine over February break. The two teams are ranked nationally, at number 21 and at number 19 respectively, with each taking on and defeating the West Coast’s top competition.
The Judges faced the Beavers of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in their first matches. On the men’s side, Brandeis beat a number 32 ranked Caltech by a slim margin of 5-4, as the Judges had a very strong showing in their doubles matches to seal the victory. In the number one category, the tough duo of David Aizenberg ’20 and sophomore partner Anupreeth Coramutla ’21 were lagging throughout most of the match, but edged their opponents in the tiebreaker to pull off a win with a score of 8-7. At the number two spot, Jeffrey Chen ’22 and Adam Tzeng ’22 made their successful debut as doubles partners, beating the Beavers in an 8-4 fashion. Lastly, at the number three ranking, Rajan Vohra ’21 and Tyler Ng ’19 also won 8-6, completing the Brandeis doubles sweep of Caltech. With the singles matches, the Beavers went on to win four of six, with wins only coming from sophomore Nikhil Das ’21 at number three and Chen at number five. However, the wins in the double’s categories were enough to propel the Judges to a win over their nationally ranked opponent.
For the women, who also opened their trip with a match against Caltech, their win was by a margin of 8-1. At the number one spot, the pair of Olivia Leavitt ’19 and Ana Hatfield ’22 won 8-6. The Judges also beat the Beavers at the number two spot, with Keren Khromchenko ’19 and Diana Dehterevich ’20 just edging Caltech with a close score of 8-7, winning the tiebreaker by a margin of 7-2. In singles, Leavitt won at the number two spot by scores of 6-1, 6-1. Classmate Khromchenko was also successful in the number three ranking, winning her sets 6-0, 6-1. At number four, another senior, Sophia He ’19, swept her opponent 6-4, 6-4. Lastly, Dehterevich also saw a victory in three sets, coming back from a 0-6 start to win the next two sets 6-1, 10-2.
Next, the men’s team took on Pomona-Pitzer College, pulling off an unbelievable upset over the number 12 ranked Sagehens. Last year when these two teams crossed paths, Pomona-Pitzer stole the victory in a 5-4 fashion, but this year, the Judges returned the favor by the exact same score. At number two doubles, Chen and Tzeng beat their opponents 8-5. Tzeng and Chen were also victorious in their singles matches, with Tzeng winning his sets 6-3, 6-1 at number four and Chen winning his 7-5, 6-1 at number five. At number two, Coramutla beat the same opponent that he fell to on the doubles side, winning 6-2, 7-6 (7-2). To seal the win, Aizenberg won at the number one spot, impressively defeating his opponent 6-4, 6-3.
On Saturday, both teams defeated their host, the University of Redlands, with the women picking up a win against a ranked opponent. The men swept their doubles opponents, with Aizenberg and Coramutla winning 8-6 at the number one spot, Ng and Vohra winning 8-5 for the number two ranking and Tzeng and Chen finishing it off with an 8-4 win at number three. In singles, Aizenberg, Das, Coramutla, Chen and Vohra were successful, making the final match score 8-1 to seal the win over the Bulldogs. For the women, doubles partners Dehterevich and Khromchenko, as well as He and Hatfield won their matches at the number two and number three spots respectively. In singles, the Judges were off to a hot start, defeating the Bulldogs in the first five matches without dropping a set. The wins came from Dehterevich, Leavitt and Khromchenko, as well as Lauren Bertsch ’21 and Rachel Zubrinsky ’21.
In the final matches of the weekend, both teams suffered 1-8 losses to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. On the men’s side, highlights included a win from Tzeng and Chen who played in the number one doubles spot for the first time, topping their opponents 8-6. On the women’s side He and Hatfield got a win at the number three doubles spot in an 8-5 fashion.
After the week packed full of matches, the men improve to 3-1 while the women improve to a 2-2 record. The men face Division I Bryant University this Saturday, while the women head to Maine to take on Bates College on Sunday.
