MIDDLETOWN, CT — Attempting to rebound from their loss to Middlebury midweek, the Ephs went into Saturday's match against the Cardinals of Little-Three rival Wesleyan looking to have a more competitive mindset. That goal paid dividends throughout the day, in both singles and doubles, as the Ephs managed to stay focused and win points when it mattered to claim a tightly contested 6-3 victory over the Cardinals.
The Cardinals were the first team to put a point on the board in the doubles portion, thanks to the likes of freshmen Steven Chen and Win Smith at two-doubles, who jumped all over the Eph pairing of junior Jose Raventos and sophomore Rohan Shastri right out of the gates on their way to a comfortable 8-2 win.
In spite of dropping the early point, the Ephs maintained focus during doubles, as the number-one team of freshman Jordan Sadowsky and junior Alexander Schidlovsky leveled the Ephs with the Cardinals by coming out on the better end of an 8-4 scoreline in their match against the Cardinal tandem of junior Zachary Brint and sophomore Michael Liu.
The final match of the doubles portion saw the Ephs serving up a break late in the pro-set at three-doubles, up 6-5; however, the Cardinal combination of junior Sam Rudovsky and sophomore Jake Roberts dug in to collect a crucial break that squared the match at six games apiece, before holding serve to pull within one game of giving the Cardinals the lead after doubles. The Eph duo of junior Brian Astrachan and freshman Brian Grodecki learned from their mistakes from their last service game, holding serve this time to push the match closer to the 8-all tiebreaker that it would eventually reach after two more service holds. With the 2-1 advantage on the line, Astrachan and Grodecki exchanged blows with Roberts and Rudovsky all the way to 6-6 in the tiebreaker, before taking control and banging out the necessary two points to claim the win for the Ephs.
The Cardinals were able to push the disappointment of the doubles portion out of their minds quickly going into singles, however, as they put together two quick wins at two- and four-singles from Chen and fellow freshman Dhruv Yadav to regain the one-point advantage they had held earlier in the match.
Momentum would not stay with the Cardinals for long, however, as Eph freshman Sachin Raghavan leveled the match for the third and final time of the day with a clutch win at the number six position, taking the first set 6-3 before grinding out the second set 7-4 in a tiebreaker.
Raventos would pull the Ephs to within just one point of victory on court 1, as he fought back valiantly from dropping the first set, 7-5, to hand Liu a pair of 6-3 sets that would earn the Ephs their fourth point of the day.
With Grodecki locked in a three-set duel of his own at five-singles, Shastri was doing everything in his power to keep his match at three-singles out of a third set. After Roberts squandered an opportunity to serve out the first set at 5-3, Shastri came roaring back to force a tiebreaker wherein he cruised to a straightforward 7-1 victory. The second set would not prove to be much different from the first, as Shastri and Roberts battled out another grueling series of games that seemed to always be leading to a tiebreaker. This tiebreaker, however, would be dramatically different from the first set's, as it took twice as many points for a winner to be decided when Shastri finally put away the match and the overall dual for the Ephs by the margin of 9-7.
Even with the match already decided, Grodecki was not about to let up at five-singles, as he took his opportunity to polish off the match for the Ephs, downing Smith 6-3 in a decisive third set.
"It was a really tough match today with a lot of ups and downs, and they gave us nothing easy," commented Eph head coach Dan Greenberg after the match today, before acknowledging his team's improvements from Wednesday: "I thought we did a good job of staying focused and eventually closing out sets, which made the difference today."
The Ephs' second match of a double-header weekend will be played against Connecticut College in New London on Sunday. That match is set for a morning start at 10AM EDT.
Williams 6, Wesleyan 3
1. Raventos, Jose (WILLIAMS) def. Liu, Michael (WESLEYAN) 5-7, 6-3, 6-3
2. Chen, Steven (WESLEYAN) def. Schidlovsky, Alexander (WILLIAMS) 6-4, 6-0
3. Shastri, Rohan (WILLIAMS) def. Roberts, Jake (WESLEYAN) 7-6(1), 7-6(7)
4. Yadav, Dhruv (WESLEYAN) def. Harron, Conrad (WILLIAMS) 6-2, 6-1
5. Grodecki, Brian (WILLIAMS) def. Smith, Win (WESLEYAN) 7-5, 4-6, 6-3
6. Raghavan, Sachin (WILLIAMS) def. Daniels, Cameron (WESLEYAN) 6-3, 7-6(4)
1. Sadowsky, Jordan/Schidlovsky, Alexander (WILLIAMS) def. Brint, Zachary/Liu, Michael (WESLEYAN) 8-4
2. Chen, Steven/Smith, Win (WESLEYAN) def. Raventos, Jose/Shastri, Rohan (WILLIAMS) 8-2
3. Astrachan, Brian/Grodecki, Brian (WILLIAMS) def. Roberts, Jake/Rudovsky, Sam (WESLEYAN) 9-8(6)
Match Notes:
Williams 7-6 (NESCAC 1-1), nationally ranked #14, regionally ranked #4
Wesleyan 3-6 (NESCAC 1-2), nationally ranked #22, regionally ranked #6
