Ephs set to host NESCAC Men's Tennis Championships this weekend

May 3, 2009

Middlebury's Conrad Olson leads Panthers past Amherst for NESCAC title

WILLIAMSTOWN, MA. – Top-seeded Middlebury (18-2) captured the 2009 NESCAC title in a 5-3 win over second-seeded Amherst (23-5).  The Panthers’ top player Conrad Olson eked out a third set tiebreaker, 10-8, to take the decisive fifth point over Amherst’s Zach Lerner and Middlebury’s first conference championship since 2007.

Lerner ended up on the wrong end of tiebreaks this afternoon, also falling in number one doubles in a 7-3 tiebreak.  The win at number one doubles by Farah and Thompson was critical, as Amherst swept the bottom two doubles matches for a 2-1 advantage heading into singles play.

Middlebury used brilliant singles play to swing the momentum back their way.  Elliot Jai took a quick win at court six, 6-1, 6-2, while Andrew Peters followed at court four with a 6-2, 6-2 victory.  Amherst’s lone singles win came on court two, where Austin Chafetz won in straight sets over Middlebury’s Andrew Thompson. 

With the match knotted at three apiece, Andrew Lee captured a win at court three while the matches at courts one and five headed into their third sets.  The battle at court one was an exciting finish to a competitive weekend of collegiate tennis, with Olson sealing the victory and the NESCAC championship for Middlebury. 

Middlebury 5, Amherst 3

Doubles-

      1)    Farah/Thompson (M) def. Lerner/Koenig (A) --- 9-8(3)

2)    Gross/Chafetz (A) def. Bonfiglio/Lee (M) --- 8-5

3)  Waterman/Jung (A) def. Olson/Peters (M) --- 8-5

Singles-

      1)    Olsen (M) def. Lerner (A) --- 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(8)

2)    Chafetz (A) def. Thompson (M) --- 6-4, 6-2

3)    Lee (M) def. Jung (A) --- 6-2, 7-5

      4)    Peters (M) def. Koenig (A) --- 6-2, 6-2

5)    Odell (M) vs. Gross – DNF

6)    Jai (M) def. Waterman (A) --- 6-1, 6-2

May 2, 2009

Amherst cruises to spot in conference finals in 5-0 win over Williams

WILLIAMSTOWN, MA. – In what was a highly contested match in the regular season, the Williams/Amherst match up today proved more one sided than expected.  Amherst surged in doubles play to take a 3-0 lead before quickly capturing two singles matches for the 5-0  win over the Ephs in the NESCAC semifinals.

Williams appeared to be en route to taking at least two of the three doubles matches, with Nick Lebedoff and Will Petrie ahead 5-0 at court two and Jeremy Weinberger and Kevin Shallcross up a break at court three.  The Amherst pair at court two, Austin Chafetz and Priit Gross, earned their win with eight straight games for an 8-5 win.  Amherst took points at court one with an 8-6 victory, and another come back match at court three, 8-6.

tospace: none;">Weinberger and Chafetz played an exciting three set match in their previous go around in the regular season.  While Chafetz came out on the top end of that match and today’s match, he had an easier time this afternoon, winning 6-4, 6-0.

“We feel when we are playing our best tennis that we can beat anyone in the country,” said Williams’ head coach Dave Donn.  “I felt that the match swung on a few points early on in doubles, and we h themes/advanced/langs/en.js" type="text/javascript"> // --> ad trouble getting the momentum back.”     

The Ephs await their fate in nationals when the bracket is revealed on Monday.

“We have a day off on Monday, and then we’ll get right back to it,” continued Donn.  “We’re not going to be judged on how we finish in the middle, but how we finish at the end of the season.”  

Amherst 5, Williams 0

Doubles-

1)    Lerner/Koeing (A) def. Thacher/Chaplin (W) --- 8-6

2)    Gross/Chafetz (A) def. Lebedoff/Petrie (W) --- 8-5

3)    Weinberger/Shallcross (A) def. Waterman/Jung (W) --- 8-6

Singles-

1)    Lebedoff (W) vs. Lerner (A) --- DNF

2)    Chafetz (A) def. Jeremy Weinberger (W) --- 6-4, 6-0

3)    Devlin (W) vs. Jung (A) --- DNF

4)    Koeing (A) def. Petrie (W) --- 6-1, 6-1

5)    Shallcross (W) vs. Gross (A) --- DNF

6)    Furmaga (W) vs. Waterman (A) --- DNF

Middlebury advances to NESCAC final in 5-1 defeat of Bowdoin

WILLIAMSTOWN, MA. – Middlebury secured itself a spot in the NESCAC finals after a 5-1 win over Bowdoin, and is looking to regain its conference crown after winning four consecutive titles from 2004 to 2007.

The Panthers defeated the Polar Bears, 6-3, in the regular season and continued where they left off in this afternoon’s contest.  Middlebury took a 2-1 advantage into singles play with two routine doubles wins at courts two and three.  Bowdoin’s Oscar Pena and Jamie Neely managed to take a win at court one with an 8-5 defeat of Middlebury’s Farah and Thompson. 

The middle of the lineup cruised to two quick victories for Middlebury.  Andrew Lee and Andrew Peters took straight set decisions at courts three and four, with Lee winning over  Tyler Anderson by a 6-1, 6-4 result and Peters taking his match over Alex Caughron by a 6-1, 6-1 score.  Andrew Thompson picked up the fifth point after a 7-5, 6-1 defeat over Pena. 

Middlebury will face off against Amherst tomorrow at 9:00 for a NESCAC championship.  Amherst defeated Williams, 5-0, to advance to the conference finals. 

Middlebury 5, Bowdoin 1

Doubles-

1)    Pena/Neel y (B) def. Farah/Thompson (M) --- 8-5

2)    Bonfiglio/Lee (M) def. Sullivan/Caughron (B) --- 8-2

3)    Olson/Peters (M) def. White/Anderson (B) --- 8-3

Singles-

1)    Conrad Olson (M) led Stephen Sullivan (B) --- 7-5, 1-1

2)    Andrew Thompson (M) def. Oscar Pena (B) --- 7-5, 6-1

3)    Andrew Lee M) def. Tyler Anderson (B) --- 6-1, 6-4

4)    Andrew Peters (M) def. Alex Caughron (B) --- 6-1, 6-1

5)    Alex White (B) led Peter Odell (M) --- 6-2, 4-6

6)    Jamie Neely (B) led Derrick Angle (M) --- 6-0, 4-3

May 1, 2009

Williams deals Bates 5-1 loss for spot in NESCAC semifinals

WILLIAMSTOWN, MA. – Third-seeded Williams, the host of the 2009 NESCAC men’s tennis championships, dealt sixth-seeded Bates a 5-1 loss to advance to the conference semifinals tomorrow against second-seeded Amherst College.  The Bobcats and the Ephs squared off just ten days ago, with Williams taking the 7-2 win.

The doubles matches unfolded in similar fashion, with Bates’s top duo of Stein and Rupesinghe taking the win at court one and the following two wins coming at the hands of the Ephs.  The match was knotted until the finish, when the visiting team took a 7-4 tiebreak.  Nick Lebedoff and Will Petrie, and Jeremy Weinberger and Kevin Shallcross, tallied solid 8-2 and 8-3 wins for the Ephs, respectively.  With the match played to decision, Williams needed three wins in singles to take the match. Seniors Rick Devlin and Karol Furmaga took quick 6-1, 7-5 decisions at courts three and six, while Weinberger battled in a second set tiebreak to clinch the match. 

Williams will face off against Amherst at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow.  Amherst defeated Williams on April 12 in a tight 5-4 contest.

Williams 5, Bates 1

Doubles-

1)    Ben Stein/Amrit Rupesinghe (B) def. Bret Thacher/Dicken Chaplin (W) --- 9-8(7)

2) "Times New Roman";">    Nick Lebedoff/Will Petrie (W) def. Max Berger/Ryan Mannelly (B) --- 8-2

3)    Jeremy Weinberger/Kevin Shallcross (W) def. Zach Fenno/Mike Reiss (B) --- 8-3

Singles-

1)    Lebedoff (W) vs. Stein (B) --- DNF

2)    Weinberger (W) def. Rupasinghe (B) --- 6-3, 7-6(9-7)

3)    Rick Devlin (W) def. Berger (B) --- 6-1, 7-5

4)    Petrie (W) vs. Reiss (B) --- DNF

5)    Kevin Shallcross (W) vs. Fenno (B) --- DNF

6)    Karol Furmaga (W) def. Mike Sherman (B) --- 6-1, 7-5

Bowdoin holds off Trinity 5-3 to advance to NESCAC semifinals

WILLIAMSTOWN, MA – The first time that fourth-seeded Bowdoin (11-5) and fifth-seeded Trinity (10-6) met back on March 17th in Pomona, CA, the Bowdoin Polar Bears clawed back from a 1-2 doubles deficit to win 5-4 by capturing four of six singles encounters.

Today, playing indoors at another neutral site – Lansing Chapman Rink at Williams College, Bowdoin opened the match by sweeping the doubles matches and taking a commanding 3-0 lead. "We changed our doubles lineup from when we played them earlier and each one lost the first game," said Bowdoin head coach Colin Joyner. Our third doubles was down 0-3 and came back to win in a tie-breaker and that point was huge for us."

At one doubles Oscar Pena and Jamie Neely (B) downed the Bantams' top duo of Anson McCook and David Yahng 8-6. Bowdoin's Stephen Sullivan and Alex Caughron downed Trinity's Spencer Feldman and Nicholas White 8-5.

Third doubles was decided in a tie-breaker as the Polar Bear team of Alex White and Tyler Anderson ov ercame the Bantam duo of Gautam Samarth and Charles McConnell 9-8 (7-5).

After doubles the Bantams captured three singles matches, before Bowdoin was able to win at five and six to make the final score readl 5-3. Senior captain Alex White put the match in the win column for the Polar Bears when he won at five, 6-2, 6-3.

Complete Match Results

Bowdoin advances to play top seed Middlebury tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM. "We lost to Middlebury 6-3 in the regular season, but we beat them here last year in the NESCAC finals 5-4," noted Joyner. "We'll need to get some wins at the top of the singles lineup if we hope to beat Middlebury. We have five players back from last year's team and they have four so it should be interesting."

April 27, 2009

Middlebury, Amherst Claim Top Seeds, First Round Bye

2009 NESCAC MEN’S TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIP
First Round - Friday, May 1 at Williams
No. 5 Trinity vs. No. 4 Bowdoin - 9:00 a.m.
No. 6 Bates vs. No. 3 Williams - 9:00 a.m.

Semifinals - Saturday, May 2 at Williams
Winner No. 5/No. 4 vs. No. 1 Middlebury - 9:00 a.m.
Winner No. 6/No. 3 vs. No. 2 Amherst - 9:00 a.m.

Championship - Sunday, May 3 at Williams
Semifinal Winners - 9:00 a.m.

HADLEY, Mass. – Middlebury College, the winner of four consecutive NESCAC titles from 2004 through 2007, has earned the number-one seed and a first round bye in the 2009 NESCAC Men’s Tennis Championship. The three-day tournament begins on Friday, May 1 with first round action featuring defending NESCAC Men’s Tennis Champion Bowdoin as the fourth seed against fifth seed Trinity while third seed Williams clashes with sixth seed Bates. Friday’s winners will advance to Saturday’s semifinals against Middlebury and second-seeded Amherst, which also received a first round bye. The 2009 NESCAC Men’s Tennis Championship wraps up on Sunday, May 3, with the final match at 9:00 a.m.

Fourth-seeded Bowdoin (10-5, 5-3 NESCAC) will look to rekindle some of the magic that brought the Polar Bears the conference crown last spring. Seeded fourth in the 2008 championship, Bowdoin moved past Maine rival Bates 5-0 in the opening round, then upended top-seeded Trinity 6-3 in the semifinals the next day. The Polar Bears capped a remarkable run in the final by snapping Middlebury’s title streak at four with a hard-fought 5-4 victory for the program’s first league championship. Bowdoin will start things up on Friday morning against one of the squads it beat en route to the 2008 title, fifth-seeded Trinity (10-5, 5-4 NESCAC). When these two teams met this season on March 17 in Pomona, Calif., the Bantams were opening up the spring with their first match while the Polar Bears already had five outings under their belts. Bowdoin went on to post a 5-4 victory against Trinity, a win that was part of a seven-match victory streak which eventually came to a halt on April 11 to Middlebury, 6-3. The Bantams head into weekend with four wins in their last six contests, most recently recording a pair of 7-2 victories at Bates on April 25 and at Colby the next day. The Polar Bears have dropped three of their last four matches, with all three setbacks coming in conference play.

Friday’s winner will face top-seeded Middlebury (17-2, 9-0 NESCAC) in the semifinals on Saturday. The Panthers were the only squad to go undefeated against conference foes this year, finishing out the regular season slate over the weekend with a pair of wins. Middlebury took an 8-1 decision on Saturday over Williams, then traveled to Amherst on Sunday in a battle of undefeated conference teams and emerged with a 5-4 victory for the number-one seed in this year’s championship. The difference for the Panthers over the Lord Jeffs came in the doubles set, winning 2-1 as the singles matches split evenly. Against its potential semifinal opponents, Middlebury earned a pair of 6-3 wins over both teams, downing Trinity at home on April 5 before traveling to Bowdoin on April 11.

The other first round match on Friday will feature third-seeded Williams (11-4, 6-2 NESCAC) against sixth-seeded Bates (10-5, 5-5 NESCAC). The Ephs were busy at the end of the regular season, playing six conference matches in the final nine days and going 5-1. Bates, meanwhile, went 4-4 down the stretch in April, most recently falling to Trinity on Saturday, 7-2, before bouncing back against Wesleyan on Sunday, 8-1. The Ephs and the Bobcats faced each other just over a week ago in Williamstown. The hosts claimed a 7-2 victory on April 20 with four of the five singles wins for Williams coming in straight sets. After reaching the final in the first two years the tournament was held, Williams was denied last spring in the first round by rival Amherst, as the Lord Jeffs won a marathon match by a 5-4 score. Bates, which is making its third playoff appearance in the past four years, was turned back by eventual champion Bowdoin last April, 5-0 in the first round. Williams has won a remarkable 14 NESCAC titles - the most by any conference team - including 11 in a row from 1993 to the Ephs’ most recent crown in 2003. Bates won its only NESCAC championship in 1988.

Second-seed Amherst (23-5, 6-1 NESCAC) will take on the Bates-Williams winner on Saturday. Although the Lord Jeffs fell just short of securing the number-one seed in this year’s tournament, they still managed to earn an opening round bye for the first time as they had never been seeded higher than fifth. During last year’s championship, Amherst managed its first win over Williams since the spring of 1995 before falling to Middlebury in the semifinals, 6-2. This season, the Lord Jeffs posted victories over both of its potential semifinal adversaries, rolling past Bates 8-1 on April 4 before edging out Williams for the second time in as many meetings, 5-4. Sunday’s aforementioned 5-4 loss to Middlebury snapped a 10-match winning streak for Amherst. A win on Saturday would give the Jeffs a shot at a fourth NESCAC title, as their previous three came from 1990-92.

The format of the NESCAC Men’s Tennis Championship changed in the spring of 2006 and features six teams vying for the NESCAC crown. Prior to 2006, the event was set up as an individual flighted tournament that included players from all 11 members of the NESCAC. Individuals and doubles teams were seeded in different classes, and a team score was determined on a points system that assigned a value for wins. The championship field is now chosen by a tournament selection committee, which seeds the six participating team, with the top two seeds receiving a first round bye.