BRUNSWICK, Maine — Boasting three conference wins in a row since losing to Middlebury on their NESCAC opening day, the Ephs made the long trek to Maine for a pair of crucial NESCAC duals on Saturday and Sunday as the post-season nears. First, on Saturday, the western-Massachusetts outfit took on the top-ranked team in the Northeast region, Bowdoin, falling 8-1 to
The Polar Bears bursted out to a quick start, mauling the Ephs in doubles to take a commanding 3-0 lead into the singles portion. The home side took care of business on all three courts as they comfortably dismissed the Eph partnerships by 8-5, 8-4, and 8-5 margins on each of the top three courts respectively.
Going into singles, the Ephs needed an incredible showing to beat the Maine side ranked second nationally. The Polar Bears, however, smothered any chance of an Eph comeback by winning first sets on five of the six courts.
Luke Tercek and Jerry Jiang combined at one- and four-singles to clinch the match for the Polar Bears, as they respectively downed the Eph co-captains Jose Raventos and Alexander Schidlovsky 6-1, 6-2 and 6-1, 6-4.
In spite of being down 5-0, the Ephs persevered and fought back, pushing three matches to third sets. However, Rohan Shastri was the only Purple Cow to outlast his Polar Bear counterpart, besting Luke Trina 11-9 in a third-set super tiebreaker, played in lieu of a full third set, and earning the Ephs their lone point of the afternoon. Brian Grodecki and Deepak Indrakanti came out on the wrong side of similar situations, losing 10-7 and 11-9 to Kyle Wolfe and Grant Urken respectively.
The Ephs have a quick turn around, as they travel farther north into Maine to Lewiston tomorrow, where they will take on Bates to try and build some momentum going into next weekend against arch-rivals Amherst. The Ephs are set to get underway against the Bobcats on Sunday afternoon at 2PM EDT.
Bowdoin 8, Williams 1
- Tercek, Luke (BOWDOIN) def. Raventos, Jose (WILLIAMS) 6-1, 6-2
- Shastri, Rohan (WILLIAMS) def. Trina, Luke (BOWDOIN) 6-4, 4-6, 1-0(9)
- Wolfe, Kyle (BOWDOIN) def. Grodecki, Brian (WILLIAMS) 6-4, 4-6, 1-0(7)
- Jiang, Jerry (BOWDOIN) def. Schidlovsky, Alexander (WILLIAMS) 6-1, 6-4
- Roddy, Gil (BOWDOIN) def. Raghavan, Sachin (WILLIAMS) 7-5, 6-4
- Urken, Grant (BOWDOIN) def. Indrakanti, Deepak (WILLIAMS) 6-2, 6-7, 1-0(9)
- Tercek, Luke/Trinka, Luke (BOWDOIN) def. Grodecki, Brian/Schidlovsky, Alexander (WILLIAMS) 8-5
- Jiang, Jerry/Wolfe, Kyle (BOWDOIN) def. Raventos, Jose/Sadowsky, Jordan (WILLIAMS) 8-4
- Roddy, Gil/Savage, Chase (BOWDOIN) def. Astrachan, Brian/Shastri, Rohan (WILLIAMS) 8-5
Match Notes:
Williams 10-3 (NESCAC 3-2), nationally ranked #9, regionally ranked #3 (Northeast)
Bowdoin 12-1 (NESCAC 5-1), nationally ranked #2, regionally ranked #1 (Northeast)
