Despite a 7-2 loss at Amherst on Saturday, the women's tennis team will enter this year's NCAA tournament with a first-round bye. With an overall 17-2 season record, the women still hold the record for the most consecutive victorious matches and the most overall wins in a season.
On April 15, the Polar Bears beat Amherst in a 6-3 match that significantly advanced the Bears' national ranking and propelled them to a team-record 13-0 mark. However, when two-seed Bowdoin challenged three-seed Amherst in the NESCAC semifinals on Saturday, the Lord Jeffs took decisive revenge.
In a tight first match, Alicia Menezes and Brittany Berckes of Amherst defeated Kristen Raymond '08 and Sarah D'Elia '09 at 9-7. Co-captains Kelsey Hughes '07 and Christine D'Elia '07 then fell to Amherst's Katie Hudson and Jill Wexler by a score of 8-4. Laura Stein and Jen Murphy completed the Amherst doubles sweep with an 8-5 victory over Rachel Waldman '09 and Brett Davis '10.
Amherst began the round of singles in this same vein of domination. On the first court, Menezes defeated Sarah D'Elia in three sets of 6-4, 3-6, and 10-8. Next, Raymond lost to Berckes in only two sets. At this point, with five consecutive victories?including three doubles and two singles matches?Amherst was able to officially clinch its overall triumph.
The teams decided to play out the rest of the match. The third singles match of Bowdoin's Hughes against Monica Snyder saw a brief return to Bowdoin's usual victorious form, as Hughes was successful at 6-4, 1-6, and 2-1, before Snyder retired from the match. Similarly, Davis defeated Amherst's Hudson 4-6, 6-4, and 10-8 in the fifth single slot. However, Christine D'Elia and Waldman fell to their respective Amherst opponents of Murphy and Stein.
On Sunday, Amherst defeated fourth-seeded Williams, 5-4, in the championship match.
In a comment earlier in the season, Head Coach Colin Joyner asserted that "doubles have been huge for us. We have gone into singles with an advantage every match because we have started off so dominantly in doubles."
Viewed in the context of a season in which the Bears have been almost entirely successful in doubles matches, the Amherst results are particularly unusual.
The Bears will have a chance to reassert themselves on their home ground on Saturday as they enter the second round of the NCAA against the winner of Ithaca and Simmons at the Pickard Field Tennis Courts.