WILLIAMSTOWN, MA — Home proved to be a revitalizing atmosphere for the Ephs, as they returned to action on Wednesday after five straight away NESCAC matches. In great need of a win, the Ephs earned just that, rediscovering their confidence en route to a 5-1 win over the Sagehens of Trinity College (match only played to completion).
After a miserable weekend of doubles, losing all six matches they played, the Ephs turned their fortunes around, managing to claim two of the three courts on Wednesday.
The number-two Eph pairing of junior Jose Raventos and sophomore Rohan Shastri led the charge, as they jumped all over their Sagehen counterparts, seniors Daniel Carpenter and David Myers, to cruise to an 8-4 margin of victory.
The Ephs and Sagehens split the remaining two matches, finishing within minutes of each other and both turning in 8-6 scorelines.
The Eph combination of freshman Jordan Sadowsky and junior Alexander Schidlovsky managed to come out on the better end of that scoreline, as they outlasted their opponents at one-doubles, junior Ford Traff and senior Musyoka Mbithi. However, their compatriots at three-doubles, freshmen Sachin Raghavan and Brian Grodecki, proved not to be so lucky, as they were edged out by the Sagehen tandem of sophomore Rutendo Matingo and Ilya Levin.
Happy just to see a point in doubles, let alone two of them, the Ephs seemed to be on the right track again, and they built upon their lead very quickly in singles, doubling their overall point tally in no time.
Grodecki took on Traff at four-singles and barely put a foot wrong on his way to a 6-1, 6-2 win, before being followed shortly thereafter by Shastri, who made quick work of Mbithi on court 2, turning in a pair of 6-2 sets to bring the Ephs to within one point of clinching.
The man to push the Ephs over the line would be Raventos, only just beating out his fellow co-captain Schidlovsky for the honor, downing Carpenter comfortably, 6-4 and 6-2.
After the match, Eph head coach Dan Greenberg was excited about what he saw out of his team Wednesday afternoon: "We finally played with confidence and sustained it throughout the match, maybe for the first time this year," before following it up with a thought on the coming home double-header this weekend, "It was a great win for us against a very tough Trinity team. I'm excited to keep building on it."
The Ephs return to action this weekend with a pair of home matches split between Saturday and Sunday. The first one will be against eighth-ranked Bowdoin, a massively important match for determining the layout going into the NESCAC tournament the following weekend. That match is set to get underway at 2 PM EDT.
Williams 5, Trinity 1
1. Raventos, Jose (WILLIAMS) def. Carpenter, Daniel (TRINITY) 6-4, 6-2
2. Shastri, Rohan (WILLIAMS) def. Mbithi, Musyoka (TRINITY) 6-2, 6-2
3. Schidlovsky, Alexander (WILLIAMS) vs. Matingo, Rutendo (TRINITY) 7-6(3), 5-1 DNF
4. Grodecki, Brian (WILLIAMS) def. Traff, Ford (TRINITY) 6-1, 6-2
5. Raghavan, Sachin (WILLIAMS) v. Levin, Ilya (TRINITY) 1-0 DNF
6. Harron, Conrad (WILLIAMS) v. Mandel, Ned (TRINITY) DNP
1. Sadowsky, Jordan/Schidlovsky, Alexander (WILLIAMS) def. Traff, Ford/Mbithi, Musyoka (TRINITY) 8-6
2. Raventos, Jose/Shastri, Rohan (WILLIAMS) def. Carpenter, Daniel/Myers, David (TRINITY) 8-4
3. Matingo, Rutendo/Levin, Ilya (TRINITY) def. Raghavan, Sachin/Grodecki, Brian (WILLIAMS) 8-6
Match Notes:
Williams 9-8 (NESCAC 3-3), nationally ranked #14, regionally ranked #4
Trinity 10-4 (NESCAC 5-3), nationally ranked #23, regionally ranked #7
