Welcome back.  This past weekend we finished up the regular season of play.  It has absolutely flown by and seems like yesterday we were leaving for our opening matches on spring break.  On Saturday we left early for our 11:30am match against Middlebury.  It would be generous to say that we performed well below our expectations.  The team came out flat in the doubles and we paid the price going down early breaks.  On Court 3, Kevin and I went down 2 breaks to start things off and even though our play improved as the match continued we were never able to recover.  The story was similar at the other two positions and we ended up getting swept.  The singles started off in similarly poor form with all 6 courts dropping first sets.  Karol, Will, and I were able to take the 2nd set in our matches but by the time 3rd sets were ready to start, Middlebury had already clinched the match so we played superbreakers.  I came away with the lone win on the day, certainly one of the more bittersweet in my time at Williams.  With a tough loss, we weren't very happy about the prospect of a 3 1/2 hour drive to get to Hamilton for Sunday's match.  However, bad moods and short tempers can't last long, and we quickly found some humor to lighten the mood.

Coach Donn has been extremely fond of his GPS taking care of all the navigation for us, especially on unfamiliar territory during spring break.  It does have its shortfalls though.  As we left Middlebury the Garmin had us take an abrupt turn onto a single lane dirt road.  For several miles we traveled next to farms and within a few meters of cows on the rocky unpaved road.  Then up ahead in the distance we could see water, but interestingly, no bridge. As we approached the shore it became clear we would be taking a cable pulled ferry across Lake Champlain.   We had a few minutes before the ferry arrived and talked to a local at the rustic family owned ferry dock.  It turns out the ferry was in operation for 1st time all year.  Further, we arrived at 5:30pm, and the ferry closed at 5:45pm.  Luck? Karma?  Who knows but it did cut an hour off the trip time it would have taken to reach a bridge.  We crossed and landed next to Fort Ticonderoga and drove another 2 hours to Clinton, NY and spent the night ready to play Hamilton the next morning.  The Hamilton match took about 90 minutes to clinch and we won 9-0.  We definitely brought some extra intensity to the match to let out some latent frustration with our performance against Middlebury.

The NESCAC tournament starts up on Friday and we play our 1st round against Bates on Friday morning.  It was a tough weekend for the team, but we're looking forward to a focused week of practice and a great start to postseason play.

Until next week,
Jeremy

With last nights win over Trinity, the team capped off a 4-0 run.  On Saturday, our match against Bowdoin started outdoors, but within a few games of doubles the rain started and we headed indoors.  We ended up dropping the doubles point losing at #1 and #2 but came out firing in singles.  The top 3 took care of business in straight sets, with Nick having a great win over Sullivan.  At 4 and 5, Will and Kevin won in 3 and at 6, Karol lost with the match already clinched for a 6-3 win.  Sundays match was against lower ranked Colby.  After going up 2-1 in the doubles, Coach Donn gave several players and the option to take the day off from singles to rest up for Bates.  Nick, Rick, and I played but Kevin and Will took the day putting Ari and Bret into the lineup at 5 and 6 respectively.  All 6 courts had straight set wins to take the match 8-1.

With 2 matches down we were ready to keep things going against the always tough Bates squad.  The weather was poor and the match was played inside.  We took 2 of 3 doubles with the loss coming at #1 to the tough team of Stein/Ruupasinghe.  At #3 doubles, Kevin and I blanked our opponents 8-0 beating the other teams off the court by at least 30 minutes.  In singles, Nick and I won relatively quickly at 1 and 2, giving the team a 4-1 edge.  At 3, Rick lost a close 3 set match.  Petrie was feeling under the weather and didn't play singles, and Kevin came through to clinch the match in 3 sets.  Karol and Bret both won giving the team a 7-2 victory.  After last years close match with Bates, it was nice to see the team stay focused and take care of business.

Last year we lost to Trinity and it definitely left a bitter feeling.  We all remembered the Bantoms storming the courts and it gave us motivation to clamp down and play good tennis.   Like the match against Bowdoin, we started off outdoors for a few games but quickly moved inside.  Kevin and I were first off at #3 beating a previously unbeaten team 8-4.  At that point, we were down breaks at both #1 and #2.  Bret and Dicken came up short losing by 1 break, while Nick and Will fought back from a 4-1 deficit to win a well fought tiebreaker.  Up 2-1, the singles started with close matches on the top 3 courts, and Will winning handily at #4.  Petrie was the first one off the court.  At that point, I had won my 1st set but was about to split, and Nick and Rick had each dropped their first sets.  After a shaky 2nd set, I played smarter tennis in the 3rd and took it easily 6-1 to give the team a 4-1 lead.  Rick battled back to split and played a great 3rd to clinch the match 5-1.  For ranking purposes, Nick finished his match and won in a superbreaker to make the final match score 6-1.  The win capped off a great stretch for the team.

We travel to Middlebury on Saturday for another big match and then play Hamilton on Sunday.  We're looking forward to beating Middlebury for the second straight year and are also excited for the 80+ weather expected for the match.  These are the last two regular season matches of the year, with NESCAC's starting up May 1st.  I'll post again Sunday after we get back from Hamilton.


-Jeremy

Welcome back.  This past weekend we had 2 matches.  The first was Sunday against Tufts.  We left early from Williamstown for the 2 1/2 hour drive to Boston only to arrive to rainy and cold weather.  The Tufts indoor facility consisted of 4 decent courts on what can only be described as a tennis rug.  The other 2 courts were extremely fast and in a part of the building that was extremely hot for no apparent reason.  The doubles started off with quick wins for us at 2 and 3.  At #1, Bret and Dicken served extremely well but had a few loose games and fell in a tiebreaker.  In singles, we lost at #6 and I went 3 sets at number 2.  Everyone else won in straight sets to give us a solid 7-2 victory. 

Sunday was the big match against Amherst.  Weather conditions were unclear as we prepared to leave Sunday morning.  Due to cold temperatures, wind, and a chance of rain the match was ultimately decided to be played at the Hampshire College tennis center.  The center has 4 real hard courts and was nicer than the Mt. Holyoke facility which is Amherst's usual backup.  As warm-ups came to a close, the Amherst home crowd arrived outnumbering our fans about 100 to 8.  Before going into details of the match, I want to thank our Williams families and friends who attended the match.   The atmosphere was electric and tense as the doubles got under way.  At #2, Nick and Will played a great match and won quickly.  It certainly took some of the pressure off Kevin and I at #3, and we were able to break serve up 7-6 to win our match.  Bret and Dicken fell in a close 8-5 match to wrap up the doubles with Williams up 2-1. 

Because there were only 4 courts, #1-4 hit the courts after the doubles ended.  The first match off was Petrie, who for the first time all season went down to tie the match at 2-2.  After going down 4-1 in the first, Rick came back to take the set and ultimately won the 2nd set 7-6 to give us a 3-2 lead.  Nick and I both won our 1st sets and then went on to split.  I served for my match at 5-4 in the 2nd and let it slip away and ultimately lost in 3.  Nick lost an extremely tough and tense battle 7-5 in the 3rd giving Amherst a 4-3 edge.  That left Kevin and Bret on court.  Bret, playing in his first dual match of the season, was unable to break down his opponent and went down in straight sets clinching the match for Amherst.  Kevin split and since the match was already decided, played a super breaker which he won to make the match 5-4 for Amherst.

The day was long and emotionally draining.  For the second year in a row we lost in a battle to our biggest rival.  On a personal note, it never feels good to serve for your match and then lose, but it felt even worse to watch the team go on to lose 5-4 when I know my match was on my racket.  Although we were all a bit down right after the match, we were optimistic in knowing that it was a match that we should have won, and will win when we get our next shot at them.  This coming weekend we hit the core of our NESCAC schedule.  We have matches Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday which will certainly be a test of our fitness and focus.  Since I'm posting Wednesday this week, I'll do the same next week after our match on Wednesday against Trinity.

Until next week,
Jeremy

After a great week in LA the team departed for Georgia on Tuesday.  We had planned to practice outdoors on Wednesday morning but rain prevented this.  Instead, we went to the World of Coke in downtown Atlanta and were able to sample about 60 different flavors of coke and coke owned brands.  We all left on a major sugar high but were happy to see that the sun had come out.  Thanks to an alumni who goes to Emory Law, we were able to get some courts at the graduate campus and hit in the afternoon.  The forecast for Thursday in Atlanta called for heavy rain, but just a few hours away in Chattanooga the weather was supposed to be nicer.  We left early Thursday for Chattanooga for our match against Sewanee.  Conditions were tough with high winds but we were able to get out to an early 3-0 lead with a sweep of the doubles.  The singles began and most courts were ahead when the downpours started and the match was canceled.  Although no official result came out of it, the match helped in preparation for Friday's battle against #1 ranked Emory.

Although Williams hadn't played Emory in my time at Williams, I had heard stories of previous matches and knew we were in for an intense and closely fought match.  The doubles started up with early breaks against our 1 and 2 teams while Kevin and I were able to stay on serve.  Although Bret and Dicken fought well, the Goodwin brothers proved too tough on the day.  At 2, Will and Nick fell behind 6-1 and although they began to mount a comeback, it was not enough to pull through.  Kevin and I were able to break several times in the match but had trouble consolidating the breaks.  It ultimately went to a tiebreaker in which we fell behind 3-0 after I missed some easy forehands.  Thankfully, we battled back to win the breaker and avoided the doubles sweep.  We needed to take 4 of 6 singles matches to pull off the win, but were only able to get victories from Kevin and Will.  Though we fell 6-3, we were happier with our singles play than in our close win against Claremont.  Our flight out of Atlanta wasn't until Saturday night and we had a great day lounging by the Emory pool and having a light hit.

The spring trip was a great start to the season and showed us that we can compete with the top teams in the country.  It was also a great opportunity to relax without work and enjoy the warm weather before returning to Williamstown.  Looking ahead, we have a very demanding NESCAC schedule.  Things kick off on Saturday against Tufts followed by the always big match against Amherst on Sunday.  We're crossing our fingers that the weather will remain nice so we can continue to train and play outdoors in the coming weeks.

Until next week,
Jeremy