Williams Defeats Skidmore 5-0 in NCAA Tournament Third Round Match

WILIAMSTOWN, MA – The Williams College men's tennis team defeated Skidmore College 5-0 in a Third Round match in the NCAA Division III men's Tennis Tournament to punch their ticket to the National Quarterfinals to be held in Kalamazoo, Michigan starting on May 20.

Williams opened the match that was played indoors in Lansing Chapman Rink due to inclement weather by sweeping the doubles points to build a 3-0 lead heading into singles play.

First off the doubles court with a victory was the number three Eph duo of Bryan Chow and Brian Astrachan who posted an 8-2 win.

Felix Sun and Matt Micheli at two doubles upped the Eph lead to 2-0 when they prevailed 8-4.

At one doubles Skidmore's Jimmy Sherpa and Danny Knight opened up a 2-0 lead only to see the Eph tandem of Trey Meyer and Alex Schidlovsky come back to tie at two all. Sherpa and Knight then won the next two points only to see Meyer/Schidlovsky tie the match at 4 all.

Meyer Schidlovsky then opened up a 7-5 lead, but the Thoroughbreds' top tandem rallied to tie the match at 7. Up 8-7 Meyer served the Ephs out of a 15-30 deficit to take game nine and the secure the third point of the match, 9-7.

"It made a big difference that Trey and Al pulled out the win at one doubles," said Eph head coach Dan Greenberg. "Their number one team was playing real well and we stayed tough to pull it out at the end."

"In singles everyone went out there and played as if they were the deciding match, winning all four first sets," added Greenberg.

The fourth Eph point of the match came from senior Zach Weiss who downed Skidmore's Gabe Steerman in straight sets at four singles, 6-2, 6-3.

The fifth and final point of the match for Williams came from senior Felix Sun who prevailed over Skidmore's Danny Knight in straight sets 6-1, 6-2.

With the win the Williams improved to 20-3 on the year and advances to the National Quarterfinals for the third consecutive year. Skidmore completes their season with a record of 13-9.

"This is a huge accomplishment to get back to the National Quarterfinals for the third straight year," commented Greenberg. "We have an awesome class of seniors who are leading the charge and we are getting better every week. We're very excited to be going to "The Zoo" [Kalamazoo] and competing for a championship."

In their 19 appearances in the NCAA Tournament Williams now sports an overall record of 52-18, while Skidmore is 3-6 in NCAA tournament play in six appearances.