Rilla proves himself at ITA Championships

Rilla received a first-round bye, which enabled him to play his first match in the second round against Jon Bram from Tufts University. After defeating Bram, he went on to the quarterfinals, where he beat Williams College’s Jeff Kivitz. It took Rilla no more than two sets in both matches to defeat his opponents (6-4, 6-1, and 6-3, 6-1, respectively). He lost his third match in the semifinals to Middlebury College’s Nathan Edmunds in three sets: 6-2, 2-6 and 6-3.

Rilla and freshman Jeff Lawrence teamed up for doubles, winning a first-round match against Mike Brooks and Jon Martin from Babson College, with a score of 8-3. In the second round they lost to the doubles team of William Boe-Weigaard and Sam Duval from Williams in a rather tight match, with a final score of 8-6.

On a more disappointing note, last Wednesday, Amherst suffered a defeat at the hands of University of Hartford. The rivalry between the two teams has a rather long history. University of Hartford is a Div. I team, but last year the Jeffs managed to eke out a 4-3 victory. This year, however, the odds were against them, and the team won two matches but lost five. No. 1 Rilla defeated Hartford’s Patrick Fling in three sets, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, and No. 5 Jon Godsall won against Jorge Acuna in two quick sets, 6-3, 6-2.

Indeed, the other singles matches were claimed by Hartford, but junior Max Rettig said, “A lot of the matches were close-in some cases closer than the score indicates.”

Karti Subramanian ’07 and Scott Bronner ’06 won one of the three doubles matches against Hartford’s Acuna and Evan Sideman (8-4). The other two doubles matches were lost to Hartford as well, and this put the team in the position to have to win four of the six singles matches to earn the victory.

Amherst defeated Brandeis University yesterday afternoon 4-3. Godsall was the man of the match. Playing No. four singles with the match tied 3-3, Godsall came from a set down to pull out the match and the overall win for Amherst. The Jeffs will look to gain a win against the visiting College of the Holy Cross this afternoon.