Women’s Tennis Falls Short Against Middlebury

The Amherst women’s tennis team traveled to Middlebury College for their final match of the 2021 season on Saturday, April 24. 

The opening round of doubles matches saw Amherst take a 2-1 match advantage. The duo of Jackie Bukzin ’22 and Julia Lendel ’24 emerged victorious in  the number one doubles match with a score of 8-6. Sarah Park ’23 and Emily Sivarak ’24 took the win in the number two doubles’ slot, also by an 8-6 margin. At number three doubles, Anya Ramras ’22 and Kaya Amin ’24 fell by an 8-5 score to the Middlebury partnership of Gena Huang and Kavina Amin. This match marks the first time that twins Kaya and Kavina have played against each other in college — surely, the two will continue their sibling rivalry for years to come.

Despite Amherst holding the advantage after the doubles matches, Middlebury came out strong in the singles matches winning four of the six contests. Bukzin continued her dominance for the Mammoths this season, winning her seventh consecutive contest 6-3, 6-2 at the number one slot on the Amherst ladder. Sivarak was the other winner for Amherst, battling hard to take a tightly contested match in the third set. Sivarak was able to come back after losing the second set in a tie-break to win the final set by a score of 10-8.

The loss brought the Mammoths season record to two wins and two losses, which will unfortunately not be enough for them to qualify for the shortened NESCAC post-season tournament. However, the team is set to return ten members of their team for next season, many of whom gained valuable collegiate experience that should put them in a strong position to contend for the NESCAC and NCAA tournament next spring.