WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — After three matches in the span of less than 32 hours last weekend, the Ephs faced a less demanding schedule this weekend when they took on regional and conference rivals, Tufts, in their lone match of the weekend. After splitting their two encounters last season, with Tufts taking the regular-season dual before the Ephs wrought their revenge in the NESCAC Quarterfinals, the purple and gold reasserted their dominance over the Jumbos on Sunday afternoon with a solid 7-2 performance at the Torrence M. Hunt '44 Tournament Courts.
The Ephs found themselves with an early advantage after the Tufts doubles pairing of Nik Telkedzhiev and Griffin Brockman had to retire after only two games of their match with Brian Grodecki and Alexander Schidlovsky, giving the Ephs an early boost against the fifth-ranked team in the region.
The remaining two doubles matches saw the Ephs and Jumbos wage an entertaining war on courts two and three, with the Ephs winning both battles.
First, it was the ever-reliable partnership of Jose Raventos and Jordan Sadowsky who saw off their opponents at two-doubles by the single-break margin of 8-5.
Then it was the senior-junior tandem of Brian Astrachan and Rohan Shastri, who squandered their break advantage in the dying moments of the pro-set, as Rob Jacobson and Nick Cary who came back from 7-5 down to force an 8-all tiebreaker. However, the resiliency of Astrachan and Shastri shown through against their Jumbo counterparts, as they outlasted the blue and brown 10-8 to give the Ephs a commanding 3-0 lead going into the singles portion.
The Jumbos needed to come out strong in singles to overturn their three-point deficit, but Schidlovsky and Grodecki saw the Ephs over the finish line, before the eastern-Massachusetts outfit's comeback could even begin.
Schidlovsky cruised to a 6-3, 6-1 victory at four-singles, just minutes before Grodecki clinched the match in favor of the Ephs by dismissing Brockman at the number three position, 6-3, 7-5.
The two teams split the remaining four points on the courts, as Danny Coran put the finishing touches on his match against Deepak Indrakanti to tally for the Jumbos their first point of the afternoon.
Raventos was next off the court at the number one position, as he renewed the Ephs' five-point advantage by defeating Jay Glickman 6-4, 6-3, before the two matches left saw Sachin Raghavan and Zain Ali prevail on their respective courts, to conclude the match 7-2.
"Tufts is a very good team and getting the free point at #1 dubs helped a lot," commented Eph head coach Dan Greenberg. "But we really stayed tough to hold off their run in singles, which was really good to see. We also saw a few areas we can really improve, so that'll be important this week looking forward to our trip to Maine next week."
The Ephs' next contest will be when they travel to Maine on Saturday to face off against the second-ranked team in the country, Bowdoin College. That match is set to get underway at 2 PM EDT.
Williams 7, Tufts 2
- Raventos, Jose (WILLIAMS) def. Glickman, Jay (TUFTS) 6-4, 6-3
- Ali, Zain (TUFTS) def. Shastri, Rohan (WILLIAMS) 7-5, 7-5
- Grodecki, Brian (WILLIAMS) def. Brockman, Griffin (TUFTS) 6-3, 7-5
- Schidlovsky, Alexander (WILLIAMS) def. Jacobson, Rob (TUFTS) 6-3, 6-1
- Raghavan, Sachin (WILLIAMS) def. Cary, Nick (TUFTS) 6-3, 4-6, 1-0(3)
- Coran, Danny (TUFTS) def. Indrakanti, Deepak (WILLIAMS) 6-1, 6-3
- Grodecki, Brian/Schidlovsky, Alexander (WILLIAMS) def. Telkedzhiev, Nik/Brockman, Griffin (TUFTS) 1-1 (ret.)
- Raventos, Jose/Sadowsky, Jordan (WILLIAMS) def. Glickman, Jay/Ali, Zain (TUFTS) 8-5
- Astrachan, Brian/Shastri, Rohan (WILLIAMS) def. Jacobson, Rob/Cary, Nick (TUFTS) 9-8(8)
Order of Finish:
Doubles - 1, 2, 3
Singles - 4, 3, 6, 1, 5, 2
Match Notes:
Williams 10-2 (NESCAC 3-1), nationally ranked #9, regionally ranked #3 (Northeast)
Tufts 11-5 (NESCAC 4-3), nationally ranked #13, regionally ranked #5 (Northeast)
