Men’s Tennis Sweeps Weekend With Two Important Wins

This Saturday, the Amherst men’s tennis team traveled to Saratoga Springs, New York, for its first two matches of the season, playing both Skidmore College and Hobart College. The team, led by its five senior captains, emerged victorious with wins on 16 of the 18 possible courts, resulting in matching 8-1 score lines against both non-conference foes.

Amherst first faced off against Skidmore, with Harris Foulkes ’22 and Zach Bessette ’19 grinding out an 8-5 win against Skidmore’s Travis Leaf and JT Wynne on the No. 1 doubles court.

Kevin Ma ’21 and William Turchetta ’22 battled Jason Keye and Jack McClaren and emerged victorious with an 8-6 win on the third doubles court.

Amherst also impressed in singles action, overwhelming Skidmore with five straight-set wins. The lone three-set contest also went Amherst’s way, with sophomore phenom Sean Wei besting Skidmore’s Noah Williamson, 6-4, 4-6, 6-0, to secure a Mammoth sweep on the singles courts.

Later that afternoon, the Mammoths took on Hobart College and got off to an excellent start after dominating doubles play. Bessette and Wei won 8-6 against Alan Dubrovsky and Walker Anderson on court one, Foulkes and Damien Ruparel ’22 defeated Thomas Shung and Jonathan Atwater 8-2 on the second court, while the senior duo of Jesse Levitin and Oliver Kendall finalized the sweep of the doubles courts, taking down Jack Ledford and Colin Molloy in a come-from-behind 8-5 win.

In singles, after losing the first set, Levitin came back to defeat David Reinharz 1-6, 6-0, 10-3. Ma, Turchetta and Foulkes won in straight sets, while Hobart notched its sole win of the day on court six, where Ledford just edged out Kendall.

After an impressive first weekend, the Mammoths are set to travel to Middlebury to compete in the ITA New England Regional Championships this coming weekend, Sept. 28-30.