Men's tennis drops close match to Bates, 4-3

Bates College ended the men's tennis team's four game winning streak yesterday with a 4-3 victory over the Jumbos on the Hirsch Courts in the Gantcher Center.

"It was a tough loss today, we could have had this won," junior Jon Bram said. "We let it slip away."

The match started out with a third doubles win by Bram and freshman partner Ben Rubenstein. The two boast the best doubles record on the team, going 7-3 through the spring. Senior co-captain Danny Lang teamed up with junior Adam Yates in a second doubles match, but lost 8-4 to put the doubles point in the hands of Tufts' number one doubles team of senior co-captain Dave Ruttenberg and sophomore Rifat Perahya. Despite being up 7-6 late in the back and forth match, Ruttenberg and Perahya dropped the close match 9-7 to give Bates the point.

Tufts set its mind to making up the lost doubles point in singles competition. Early in the set of matches, Perahya won in dominating fashion 6-1, 6-0 before most of the other matches were even into their second sets.

"I was on top of my game. I was zoning," Perahya said. "It's not important that I just win my matches, we need to win as a team."

Despite being ahead 5-4 in the first set, number one player Ruttenberg, lost a tight first singles match 7-5, 6-3 to Bates' Will Boe-Wiegaard.

After winning the first set 6-1 in the number four match, Lang could not hold on as he lost the next two sets 6-3, 6-2. Bram, on the heels of an uncontested match last Tuesday against Babson, won an intense third singles match 7-6, 7-6, going to a tiebreaker in both sets.

"I had a big win today, it felt good," Bram said. "[The uncontested match] gave me some rest. The break was good for me."

Late in the match, freshman standout Ben Alexander won his first set 6-2 before going to a super breaker in the 7-6 second set. Alexander won eight straight points to eventually win 10-8.

But it was too little too late for the Jumbos, as shortly before, Bates senior Dave Meyer defeated number five Adam Yates to clinch the win for the Bobcats.

Despite the team loss, Alexander had a smile on his face after his win.

"I gave up a match point in the second set to let him get back into it," he said. "It was intense."

Although Alexander was content with his win, the team feels it is more talented than its 6-5 record indicates.

"Teamwise, we are not having our best season. We could have done much better," Perahya said.

The team was also in action Tuesday against Babson. The team won 4-0 as the doubles and number one and two singles were uncontested after Tufts won the three through six matches. Lang, Yates, Alexander, and freshman Ben Rubenstein were all winners in the blowout that saw Tufts lose only three games out of the eight sets played.

Yesterday's loss drops Tufts to 6-5 and possibly out of postseason play.

"It's going to be tough to make Regionals now," coach Jim Watson said after the loss. "Its up to the selection committee now. They invite eight teams and hopefully they'll think we deserve it."

Before the Regional tournament, Tufts has the NESCAC tournament to worry about. The NESCAC Championships take place this weekend at Middlebury.

"There's a tremendous amount of depth in the NESCAC," Watson said. "The only weak teams are Connecticut College, Hamilton, and Colby. The rest are very, very good."

Despite the loss, the team is confident for the tournament.

"We are going to be very solid in the postseason," Alexander said. "All but one loss was close. There were a lot we could have won."