REDLANDS, CA – The No.13 Williams College Ephs battled the No.8 Redlands Bulldogs Saturday, eventually emerging victorious 5-4. The match is their fifth of their spring break trip, and the third of four straight matches against top 10 teams in the country. The upset brings the Ephs to 7-1 on the season, with two more matches left in California.
Although Williams has been stronger overall at doubles than singles this season, they lost two of three for the second straight match. Alex Taylor '20 and Brian Grodecki '18, however, continued to show their dominance in doubles, winning their eighth match in a row with a final score of 8-6. Unfortunately for the Ephs, their win did not carry over to the other two matches, as Jordan Sadowsky '18 and Rohan Shastri '17 lost 5-8, and Benjamin Lebowitz '20 and Sachin Raghavan '18 were defeated as well.
Unable to lean on an advantage from doubles, the Ephs had to give it their all in singles to come out with a victory. Thanks to strong play early on in the singles portion from Grodecki and first year Ananth Raghavan, Williams took the lead 3-2.
Shastri, Sachin Raghavan, Deepak Indrakanti '19, and Taylor then had to win two of the four remaining matches to pull off a victory. Indrakanti and Raghavan were able to secure the victories to finish off the match 5-4. Both had to play three long sets to win in an extremely hard fought match between the two teams.
"Brian and Ananth were able to capitalize on some early opportunities in singles, and Sachin and Deepak fought until the end," said head coach Dan Greenberg. "Redlands was incredibly tough."
After the hard-fought road victory, the Ephs will look to prepare for yet another difficult test, coming in the form of the undefeated No.5 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags (13-0). The match will take place at 4:00 PM PDT on Tuesday, March 28.
Williams 5, Redlands 4
Doubles:
Alex Taylor/Brian Grodecki (W) def. Joey Dulle/Jake Ly (R) – 8-6
Chase Lipscomb/Brad Cummins (R) def. Jordan Sadowsky/Rohan Shastri (W) – 8-5
Parker Wilson/Tom Suchodolski (R) def. Benjamin Lebowitz/Sachin Raghavan (W) – 8-4
Singles:
Chase Lipscomb (R) def. Rohan Shastri (W) – 3-6, 6-3, 6-2
Brian Grodecki (W) def. Parker Wilson (R) – 6-3, 6-1
Sachin Raghavan (W) def. Joey Dulle (R) – 5-7, 6-4, 6-3
Deepak Indrakanti (W) def. Jake Ly (R) – 4-6, 6-4, 6-2
Tom Suchodolski (R) def. Alex Taylor (W) – 6-4. 6-4
Ananth Raghavan (W) def. Avery Davis (R) – 6-3, 6-1
