CLAREMONT, CA — Before Tuesday, of the seven matches in which the Ephs have taken part, they have left the doubles portion with the advantage in each one, and on Tuesday, against Gustavus Adolphus, it was no different, as the Ephs once again captured a crucial early lead that they would ride to a competitive 7-2 victory over the #16 Lions.
The Ephs took all three doubles points off the Lions, as the freshman combination of Brian Grodecki and Sachin Raghavan improved their remarkable run of form at three-doubles by dismissing the Lion duo of junior Mitch Elofson and freshman T. Connor Shives, 8-4.
The other two courts were much more tightly contested, however, as the Lions fought hard to try and take at least a point off the Ephs in doubles. Their efforts went unrewarded however, as the number-two Eph pairing of sophomores Conrad Harron and Rohan Shastri downed freshman Mohanad Al-Houni and his partner, senior Brad Enwistle, 8-5, before the Eph tandem of freshman Jordan Sadowsky and junior Alexander Schidlovsky edged their one-doubles counterparts, senior Motasem Al-Houni and sophomore Andres Saenz, 9-7 after grabbing a late break.
"I thought we really managed well in doubles…they're a very strong doubles team, so to sweep them was great," commented Eph head coach Dan Greenberg after the match.
With a comfortable 3-0 cushion going into singles, the Ephs only needed two singles wins to emerge with their fourth win on the bounce, and the Ephs' depth paid off for them once again, as they took four of the six possible points from singles, with all four points coming from the 3-6 positions.
Gustavus Adolphus, however, put pressure on the Ephs early in the singles portions, as they raced to victories at courts 1 and 2, as the Al-Houni brothers blanked each of their respective opponents, pulling the Lions to within one point of leveling the match.
The Ephs would staunch the bleeding quickly, however, as Eph sophomore Howard Weiss ebbed the flow with a comfortable 6-1, 6-3 scoreline over Lion freshman Zach Ekstein at six-singles, followed by Shastri's 6-4, 6-2 win at three-singles over Entwistle that clinched the match for the Ephs.
The Ephs did not stop there, however, as they went on to capture the remaining two points, with the freshmen, Grodecki and Raghavan, each coming out on top of tight contests at four- and five-singles respectively.
Grodecki grinded out a tough win that saw both sets fall his way by the margin of 7-5, before his doubles partner completed a lop-sided comeback, dealing a pair of 6-1 blows to Elofson after dropping his first set by the same margin.
Greenberg also remarked on his pleasure with the mental toughness of his team in singles, in spite of the two early losses: "In singles, they came out on fire, but our 3-6 stayed tough to eventually turn the tide back in our favor."
With the victory, the Ephs have built up as much confidence as they can going into their toughest test of the year thus far on Wednesday against the top-ranked team in the country, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, whom the Ephs defeated in the national championship match two years ago, but who also took their revenge on the Ephs last year in a similar fixture, punishing the Ephs 8-1 during the Ephs' spring break trip to California. The Ephs will look to swing that scoreline their way this year. The match is set to start at 7 PM EDT.
Williams 7, Gustavus Adolphus 2
1. Al-Houni, Mohanad (GA) def. Schidlovsky, Alexander (WILLIAMS) 6-0, 6-0
2. Al-Houni, Motasem (GA) def. Harron, Conrad (WILLIAMS) 6-0, 6-0
3. Shastri, Rohan (WILLIAMS) def. Entwistle, Brad (GA) 6-4, 6-2
4. Grodecki, Brian (WILLIAMS) def. Saenz, Andres (GA) 7-5, 7-5
5. Raghavan, Sachin (WILLIAMS) def. Elofson, Mitch (GA) 1-6, 6-1, 6-1
6. Weiss, Howard (WILLIAMS) def. Ekstein, Zach (GA) 6-1, 6-3
1. Sadowsky, Jordan/Schidlovsky, Alexander (WILLIAMS) def. Al-Houni, Motasem/Saenz, Andres (GA) 9-7
2. Harron, Conrad/Shastri, Rohan (WILLIAMS) def. Entwistle, Brad/Al-Houni, Mohanad (GA) 8-5
3. Grodecki, Brian/Raghavan, Sachin (WILLIAMS) def. Elofson, Mitch/Shives, T. Connor (GA) 8-4
Match Notes:
Williams 5-3, nationally ranked #14, regionally ranked #3
Gustavus Adolphus 11-6, nationally ranked #16, regionally ranked #5
