The men's tennis team continued its stellar season by taking two of three matches over the weekend. The team scored 4-3 victories over Middlebury on Friday and on Amherst on Monday, while falling to Williams on Saturday. Its only defeat of the season, a 3-4 loss to last year's Division III National Champion, was a minor dent in a weekend thawhicht provided more confidence for the streaking team.
"They are believing in themselves and believing that they can compete with anyone in the country," coach Jim Watson said. "I think when we lose 4-3 to the defending National Champions, it speaks well to our conference."
The weekend's biggest match pitted the 14th ranked player in the country, Williams' Josh Lefkowitz, against Tufts' number one, Dave Ruttenberg. Ruttenberg claimed the first set 6-3 and was down 3-2 in the second against Lefkowitz, when he developed a cramp. Though the pain appeared minor, Ruttenberg was clearly affected. Against such stiff competition, it proved too much to overcome.
"I was a little sick the night before," Ruttenberg said. "Against any other player I could have scrapped my way to a win. But it's kind of hard beating the number four player in the country (while injured)."
Aside from the one setback, Ruttenberg was solid in his other matches of the weekend, winning 7-5, 6-4 against Middlebury and 6-2, 6-1 against Amherst.
A positive for the Jumbos continues to be the play of the freshmen Rifat Perahya and Adam Yates. In a tightly contested match against Middlebury's number six player Stuart Brown, Yates pulled away for a 7-6, 6-7, 7-6 victory.
"It was tied 3-3 in matches and Adam had lost a potential match point in the second set, but he pulled through to win third set." Watson said.
Rifat took a 6-4, 6-4 victory from Middlebury's number two on Friday. On Saturday, in arguably the team's most impressive win in a singles match this year, he won 6-1, 6-1 against Williams' number two, David Frankle. The win against a top player on a nationally prominent team was a strong sign for the young player.
"I was really on," Rifat said. "I was really dominating my game."
Rifat, who has demolished all but one player in his path thus far this season, anxiously deflected praise to the team as a whole. "I'm really happy to be part of the team." Rifat said. "Everyone is making sacrifices."
Despite his imposing play so far this season, Rifat ran out of gas in Monday's contest, losing 6-2, 6-2 to Amherst's Adam Leibsohn.
The team now stands at an impressive 6-1 and is experiencing one of its best seasons in several years. In fact, with five regular season matches left, the team is just one win shy of last year's total. "It's been a great year," Watson said. "We are winning matches we wouldn't have in years past."
The Squad looks to continue its stellar play today at Trinity and then closes out its home schedule with matches on Friday against Bowdoin and on Saturday against Colby.
