WILLIAMSTOWN, MA — "What an amazing match," were the first words out of Eph head coach Dan Greenberg's mouth on Sunday afternoon a little after 6:30 PM, five hours and thirty minutes after the contest between the Ephs and the Skidmore Thoroughbreds had gotten underway. It took every one of the 330 minutes for the two teams to be separated, as the Ephs found themselves in yet another match that came down to a deciding set on the final court of the day, as the matchup at five-singles between Eph freshman Sachin Raghavan and Thoroughbred junior Jonah Epstein proved to be the most enthralling and the most pivotal on the day.
Because of the limited availability of indoor courts, the affair at five-singles did not begin until after the first four singles matches were all more or less complete with the Ephs holding a slim 4-3 advantage over the Thoroughbreds, but Raghavan watched his compatriot, junior Howard Weiss, fall at six-singles to freshman Ted Berkowitz, leveling the match at 4-all, leaving the match to be decided by the result on his own court 5.
Raghavan seemed to be in complete control of the proceedings, as he snatched the first set comfortably 6-2 and took a commanding 3-0 lead in the second, but Epstein was never going to go down without a fight, coming back strong and rallying hard to take six of the next seven games to steal the second set 6-4, sending the match, and the overall dual, into a deciding set.
Raghavan jumped out to another lead, claiming an early break against Epstein's serve at 2-1, but he failed to consolidate in the next game, allowing Epstein to break back, before the two exchanged another pair of service breaks, leaving the score on-serve at 4-3. Epstein was finally able to find a way to hold his serve, squaring the match at four games apiece, but Raghavan swiftly followed suit in the proceeding game, forcing Epstein to have to hold serve to stay in the match. With the pressure amped up, Raghavan came through in a big way to break his more veteran counterpart and claim a massively important victory for the Ephs.
Greenberg commented on Raghavan's clutch performance in clinching the match for the Ephs: "Both teams really battled today, and Sachin [Raghavan] fought through some freshmen nerves to clinch. It was a really great moment for him."
The beginning of the match was slightly less dramatic but no less crucial, as the Ephs once again put together an impressive doubles performance to claim the advantage going into singles.
First off the court at three-doubles was Raghavan and his partner, fellow freshman Brian Grodecki, who downed an opposing pair of Thoroughbreds, coincidentally also freshmen, Lucas Pickering and Steven Koelouris, 8-5.
The Ephs would double their lead several minutes later as the Eph duo of junior Jose Raventos and sophomore Rohan Shastri claimed their own match at one-singles, putting away the junior Thoroughbred tandem of Kit Sanderson and Nick Tong by the narrow margin of 8-6.
The Thoroughbreds would avoid being swept in doubles, however, as the number-two Eph pairing of freshman Jordan Sadowsky and junior Brian Astrachan came out on the losing end of a 9-7 scoreline, after squandering an opportunity to give the Ephs a 3-0 lead when they were serving for the match at 7-6 against Epstein and sophomore Kai Yeun Leung.
In the singles portion, the Thoroughbreds would build on their momentum from the end of doubles to draw level with the Ephs, as Sanderson cruised to a pair of 6-1 sets at two-singles over Shastri.
Then the Ephs responded well to the early singles setback by securing the next two matches off the court, as Eph sophomore Conrad Harron saw off Koulouris 6-3, 6-2 before Grodecki finished off Pickering 7-5 and then 6-3, putting the Ephs within one point of clinching.
However, the Thoroughbreds once again had a response, as the pendulum of momentum swung toward them after they clawed back level with the Ephs at 4-all with victories for Leung at one-singles and then Berkowitz on court 6.
The rest was left up to Raghavan, as his monumental effort notched the win for the Ephs.
"You know, we've had a couple very tough weeks, with a lot of competitive wins and losses. I don't think we could've asked for much more to prepare us for the upcoming NESCAC season," added Greenberg when asked about the upcoming series of NESCAC tilts, the first of which will be this Wednesday when the Ephs return to action away against sixth-ranked Middlebury. That match is set to start at 3 PM EDT.
Williams 5, Skidmore 4
1. Leung, Kai Yeun (SKIDMORE) def. Raventos, Jose (WILLIAMS) 6-1, 7-5
2. Sanderson, Kit (SKIDMORE) def. Shastri, Rohan (WILLIAMS) 6-1, 6-1
3. Harron, Conrad (WILLIAMS) def. Koulouris, Steven (WILLIAMS) 6-3, 6-2
4. Grodecki, Brian (WILLIAMS) def. Pickering, Lucas (SKIDMORE) 7-5, 6-3
5. Raghavan, Sachin (WILLIAMS) def. Epstein, Jonah (SKIDMORE) 6-2, 4-6, 6-4
6. Berkowitz, Ted (SKIDMORE) def. Weiss, Howard (WILLIAMS) 6-4, 6-0
1. Raventos, Jose/Shastri, Rohan (WILLIAMS) def. Sanderson, Kit/Tong, Nick (SKIDMORE) 8-6
2. Epstein, Jonah/Leung, Kai Yeun (SKIDMORE) def. Sadowsky, Jordan/Astrachan, Brian (WILLIAMS) 9-7
3. Raghavan, Sachin/Grodecki, Brian (WILLIAMS) def. Pickering, Lucas/Koulouris, Steven (SKIDMORE) 8-5
Match Notes:
Williams 6-5, nationally ranked #14, regionally ranked #3
Skidmore 7-5, nationally ranked #28, regionally ranked #10
