CLAREMONT, Calif. — The Eph men concluded their spring break, west-coast tennis extravaganza on Wednesday evening, as they visited the campus of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps to put their undefeated 7-0 record on the line against the defending national champions, having beaten Middlebury College 5-0 in the 2015 finals. And just like the Panthers on that May afternoon in Mason, Ohio last year, the Ephs' record did not escape their encounter with the second-ranked Stags unblemished, as the Ephs were bested by the southern-California side by a 7-2 margin.
In spite of the rather lop-sided scoreline, things started off quite positively for the Ephs. Nine games into each of the three doubles matches, the Ephs were on-serve at one- and three-doubles, and carried a 6-3 advantage on Court 2.
However, just minutes later, rain uncharacteristically began to fall on the Biszantz Family Tennis Center, grinding the dual to a halt immediately after the Eph pairing of Jose Raventos and Jordan Sadowsky finished off their Stag counterparts to record the first point of the evening, 8-3. The remaining two matches were temporarily delayed with the scores at 4-5 and 6-all.
After a delay that lasted the better part of 75 minutes, the matches resumed at critical points in the pro-sets, and the Stags came out of the blocks looking much more up to the task.
Glenn Hull and Lestter Yeh struck hard and fast at three-doubles to win the first two games after the resumption of play to level the Stags with the Ephs in the overall score, and the southern California side didn't have to wait long for their representatives on Court 1 to put away Brian Grodecki and Alexander Schidlovsky, who themselves lost three of the four games played after the rain delay.
Facing their post-rain-delay disappointment of falling behind after doubles for only the first time this season, the Ephs always were going to face an uphill battle in singles against the two-time national champions, but the Ephs refused to capitulate to the Stags, in spite of a rough go of it from the outset of singles, losing first sets on four of the six courts.
"We lost a little focus at the end of doubles after the rain delay," commented Eph head coach Dan Greenberg in his post-match interview. "We came out sloppy, but I felt that we really fought back well in singles."
The Ephs needed four of the six singles points to complete the upset, and Deepak Indrakanti carried the banner for the Ephs in singles. The first-year outfought Avinash Vemuri at the number six position in the first set, 6-4, before jumping all over the Portland-native in the second, 6-1.
Fate would have it though that Indrakanti would be the only Eph who could convert his chances, as things unraveled at several crucial of moments for the Ephs in singles.
Rohan Shastri found himself locked in a battle with Hull on Court 2 at 5-all in the first set, but was quickly undone as the junior Stag rattled off an astounding seven straight games to all but finish off the junior from Williamstown, reestablishing the one-point lead for the maroon and gold.
Even down 3-2 and having only won one first set amongst the remaining matches, the Ephs were in with a fighting chance as Grodecki found himself up two breaks in the second set at three-singles after squandering an early lead in the first set. Grodecki's position, combined with Sachin Raghavan's first-set triumph and 5-all second-set scorelines on the other two courts, gave the Ephs hope. However, the Stags of CMS showed their resilience and the experience they gained from taking home a national title last season.
Yeh dealt the Ephs a heavy blow on Court 5, as he broke Raghavan at 4-4 in the second and swiftly held his serve to force his match into a deciding set. Then, moments later, veteran Stags Skyler Butts and Max Macey devastated the Eph faithful by breaking the serves of their respective opponents, Raventos and Schidlovsky, at 5-all in the second set, sounding the death knell for the Ephs' chance at toppling the top-ranked team in the western region and clinching the match 5-2.
With two matches left on the court, Raghavan seemed to have run out of gas on Court 5, as Yeh rode the wave of his momentum from the end of the second set all the way to the finish line in the third, defeating the Eph sophomore 6-1, moments after Daniel Morkovine came back from losing his own second set against Grodecki, 6-1, to defeat the other Eph sophomore in a third set super-tiebreaker 10-3.
After the match, Greenberg reflected positively on his team's performances during their spring break trip: "We were really close to turning it around and getting a win, so we have a lot to learn and bring back from today's match going into the NESCAC season. Overall, this was a really productive spring trip for us."
In spite of ending spring break with a loss, the Ephs will return to New England with their heads held high, as they tout an impressive 5-1 record from their nine-day trip west. After they return, they have nine days off before NESCAC play gets underway, when they will face off first against reigning NESCAC Champions Middlebury in their first home match of the spring campaign. That dual is set for Saturday, April 9th with an 11 AM EDT start time at the Torrence M. Hunt '44 Tournament Courts.
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 7, Williams 2
- Butts, Skyler (CMS) def. Raventos, Jose (WILLIAMS) 6-2, 7-5
- Hull, Glenn (CMS) def. Shastri, Rohan (WILLIAMS) 7-5, 6-1
- Morkovine, Daniel (CMS) def. Grodecki, Brian (WILLIAMS) 6-4, 1-6, 1-0(2)
- Macey, Max (CMS) def. Schidlovsky, Alexander (WILLIAMS) 6-0, 7-5
- Yeh, Lestter (CMS) def. Raghavan, Sachin (WILLIAMS) 3-6, 6-4, 6-1
- Indrakanti, Deepak (WILLIAMS) def. Vemuri, Avinash (CMS) 6-4, 6-1
- Butts, Skyler/Morkovine, Daniel (CMS) def. Grodecki, Brian/Schidlovsky, Alexander (WILLIAMS) 8-5
- Raventos, Jose/Sadowsky, Jordan (WILLIAMS) def. Macey, Max/Seifert, Oliver (CMS) 8-3
- Hull, Glenn/Yeh, Lestter (CMS) def. Astrachan, Brian/Shastri, Rohan (WILLIAMS) 8-6
Order of Finish:
Doubles - 2, 3, 1
Singles - 6, 2, 1, 4, 3, 5
Match Notes:
Williams 7-1, nationally ranked #14, regionally ranked #4 (Northeast)
CMS 15-2, nationally ranked #2, regionally ranked #1 (West)
