WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Entering the final weekend of the regular season, the Ephs had a Saturday afternoon dual with arch-rivals, Amherst, to contemplate first in their penultimate match. To say the Ephs have struggled in recent years against their rivals from central Massachusetts might be putting it lightly, only managing wins in 3 of the last 16 duals against Amherst. However, Saturday afternoon seemed as good a chance as any to jump all over an Amherst side that, to some degree, has struggled this spring season in conference play, with losses to Middlebury, Bowdoing, Wesleyan, and Tufts already on their record. Nevertheless, the Amherst men made the trek west to Williamstown seeking a win that would draw them to .500 in NESCAC play on the season. However, they left the northwest corner of Massachusetts with no such joy, slumping to a fourth consecutive conference loss.
As it so often does, the third doubles point proved to be an absolutely essential component in determining the outcome of the match, as the match-ups on Courts 1 and 3 resulted in rather comfortable wins for Amherst and Williams respectively.
The veteran Amherst partnership of Aaron Revzin and Michael Solimano overpowered Brian Grodecki and Alexander Schidlovsky early in the pro-set, racing out to an early two-break lead that they comfortably saw across the finish line, 8-4.
However, the Ephs would not be trailing 1-0 for long, as the Eph tandem of Brian Astrachan and Sachin Raghavan tallied an equally comfortable point at the three position for the Ephs, taking advantage of early opportunities against Jesse Levitin and Andrew Yaraghi to cruise to an 8-2 victory.
Who would have the overall advantage going into singles came down to the final match on Court 2, where the consistently reliable pairing of Jose Raventos and Jordan Sadowsky traded blows with the duo of Zach Bessette and Jon Heidenberg from Amherst. With the match all-square at 5-all, the experience of the two Ephs took over from there, as the senior and sophomore rattled off three straight games against the two first-years to close out their match and give the Ephs the 2-1 advantage.
Reminiscent of the doubles portion, however, neither side could create any meaningful distance between themselves and the other during singles play, and it looked like the match was going to go down to the wire, with each team winning three opening sets.
Revzin struck first in the singles portion for the away faction, quickly leveling the score with a swift 6-1, 6-4 victory over Schidlovsky on Court 3. However, Raventos renewed the Ephs' one-point advantage shortly thereafter, as he toughed out a tight first set on Court 1 against Solimano, 6-4, before having an easier time in the second, 6-2.
Even though the Ephs held a slight 3-2 advantage over Amherst on the scoreboard, there seemed to be little to separate the two Massachusetts-based outfits on the courts, with all four of the remaining matches splitting sets.
Grodecki did ever so well to fight back after losing the first set on Court 2 to Bessette, 6-3, as he pushed the young Floridian all the way to a 6-all tiebreaker in the second set and then forced a deciding set after a 7-3 tiebreaker scoreline. However, the sophomore from Pennsylvania seemed to run out of gas in the final set, as Bessette hit top gear, winning the requisite six games before Grodecki could find his feet.
With the score level once again, it was a senior, rarely featured in the singles lineup, that rose to the occasion presented to him in his last regular-season home match of his Williams career. Howie Weiss, playing in only his second match of the spring season, was pitted against Heidenberg at six-doubles, and the Eph senior got off to the best possible start, snatching the first set off his more youthful counterpart, 6-4. Heidenberg wasn't going to go down without a fight though, as he roared back to life in the second set, requiring only eight games to send the match into a third and final set. Weiss, however, relying on the home support and his surfeit of experience, flipped the Floridian's scoreline from the previous set on its head, pulling the Ephs within one point of clinching the match.
"He's a tough kid, Howie, and he does everything right," praised Eph head coach Dan Greenberg after the match. "He wanted to be out there today, and that really paid off for us."
With the barn-burner of a match finally getting down to the wire, the only matches left were on Courts 4 and 5, and just like each time before that either team managed to earn a one-point advantage over the other, the other side responded.
Amherst's Ben Fife recovered from a slow start against Raghavan to level the overall score for the fourth time of the afternoon. The senior from New York succumbed to the Eph sophomore 6-3, but bounced back well to claim the subsequent two sets 6-2 and 6-4.
With the dual locked at four points apiece, all eyes turned to Court 5, where a titanic first-year battle was playing itself out. Levitin had managed to win the first set against Deepak Indrakanti, after the Eph freshman squandered an early break, but the Ohioan shook off the disappointment from his first-set loss to put together four straight games, after finding himself down 2-3 in the second, leaving the entire dual to be decided by one last set.
Indrakanti used his momentum from the second set to jump all over Levitin early in the third, as the Eph faithful made themselves heard as they watched their man pull Williams to within one game of clinching the match at 5-2. But typical of such a great rivalry, Levitin was not finished yet. The Amherst man held his serve to get to 3-5 and then heroically broke the Eph youngster to return the match to on-serve. However, in a set that had seen four breaks already, Indrakanti added one more to finish off his opponent 6-4 and notch the Ephs' second win in-a-row against Amherst, after last year's NESCAC Semifinals victory.
"What an incredible match," spoke Greenberg in amazement. "Both teams really battled till the end out there today, and it was truly awesome to see our rookie step up at the end to clinch. Now we have to regroup for tomorrow."
With what may turn out to be a key victory in the narrative of their season now behind them, the Ephs turn their attention to their final match of the regular season, as they travel to Connecticut tomorrow to face off against the Bantams of Trinity College. The dual is set to get underway at 12:30 PM EDT.
Williams 5, Amherst 4
- Raventos, Jose (WILLIAMS) def. Solimano, Michael (AMHERST) 6-4, 6-2
- Bessette, Zach (AMHERST) def. Grodecki, Brian (WILLIAMS) 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-0
- Revzin, Aaron (AMHERST) def. Schidlovsky, Alexander (WILLIAMS) 6-1, 6-4
- Fife, Ben (AMHERST) def. Raghavan, Sachin (WILLIAMS) 3-6, 6-2, 6-4
- Indrakanti, Deepak (WILLIAMS) def. Levitin, Jesse (AMHERST) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
- Weiss, Howard (WILLIAMS) def. Heidenberg, Jon (AMHERST) 6-4, 2-6, 6-2
- Revzin, Aaron/Solimano, Michael (AMHERST) def. Grodecki, Brian/Schidlovsky, Alexander (WILLIAMS) 8-4
- Raventos, Jose/Sadowsky, Jordan (WILLIAMS) def. Bessette, Zach/Heidenberg, Jon (AMHERST) 8-5
- Astrachan, Brian/Raghavan, Sachin (WILLIAMS) def. Levitin, Jesse/Yaraghi, Andrew (AMHERST) 8-2
Order of Finish:
Doubles - 1, 3, 2
Singles - 3, 1, 2, 6, 4, 5
Match Notes:
Williams 12-3 (NESCAC 5-2), nationally ranked #9, regionally ranked #3 (Northeast)
Amherst 14-8 (NESCAC 3-5), nationally ranked #14, regionally ranked #6 (Northeast)
