WILLIAMSTOWN,
MA. – Williams men's tennis (10-3, 5-1) made a
clean sweep in their most difficult stretch of the regular season,
playing four matches in five days and defeating visiting conference
foe, Trinity (9-5, 3-4), by a 6-1 margin inside Lansing Chapman
Rink this evening.
“I thought our team mentally came
through in this stretch,” said Ephs head coach Dave
Donn. “It was a
difficult couple days of conference play, and we're very
happy with the way we finished today. Doubles
was very key, and we came through when we had to.”
With the singles play sure to be competitive,
the two doubles points proved extremely
important. Jeremy Weinberger and Kevin
Shallcross grabbed the first point of the match, winning handily at
court three, 8-4. The
Ephs number one doubles pair couldn't edge their Trinity
opponents, but Nick Lebedoff and Will Petrie battled for that
critical 2-1 lead defeating the Bantams' Anson McCook and
David Yahng, 8-6.
Because the match was moved inside due to rain
showers, the first four match ups took the
courts. Will Petrie was the first to finish,
defeating Yahng at court four, 6-0, 6-3. The top
of the singles lineup logged some minutes tonight, showcasing some
great college tennis.
Nick Lebedoff and Spencer Feldman traded games in the first set,
and proceeded to have a back and forth contest in the
tiebreak. While Feldman edged Lebedoff in the
first set, a determined Lebedoff countered with a win in the second
set and in a super tiebreaker.
Weinberger had an easy go at Gautam Samarth in
the first set, but struggled to play the same game in the second
set. He found his
stride in the third for a three set win. At court
three, Rick Devlin went down early in a 3-0 hole in the
first set, before countering with four straight
games. Although he eventually lost the first
set, he managed to come from behind to take the final two sets by
dominant 6-0, 6-2 scores. With the match played
to decision, Shallcross and Karol Furmaga did not finish their
matches at courts five and six.
The Ephs will travel to Middlebury on Saturday
for an 11:30 a.m. match. Middlebury is currently
ranked sixth in the nation, while the Ephs sit just below the
Panthers, ranked seventh.
"We are feeling good about ourselves right
now," continued Donn. "We know that the meaningful part of
the season is still left ahead, and there are of course a few
things to tweak here or there, but the team is in a great state of
mind right now."
Williams 6,
Trinity 1
Doubles-
1)
Spencer Feldman/Nicholas White (T) def. Bret Thacher/Dicken Chaplin
(W) --- 8-6
2)
Nick Lebedoff/Will Petrie (W) def. Anson McCook/David Yahng (T) ---
8-6
3)
Jeremy Weinberger/Kevin Shallcross (W) def. Gautam Samarth/Charles
McConnell (T) --- 8-4
Singles-
1)
Lebedoff (W) def. Feldman (T) --- 6-7(6), 6-3, 10-7
2)
Weinberger (W) def. Samarth (T) --- 6-3, 3-6, 6-1
3)
Rick Devlin (W) def. McCook (T) --- 4-6, 6-0, 6-2
4)
Petrie (W) def. Yahng (T) --- 6-0, 6-3
5)
Shallcross (W) led White (T) --- 6-2, 2-3
6)
Karol Furmaga (W) led Lanza (T) --- 3-2
