After a successful ITA/Regional Championship tournament at Williams, the top- ranked men’s tennis team officially began its defending its title in Baltimore on Oct. 8 with a well-earned 6-3 dual match win over 13th-ranked Johns Hopkins.

After winning the singles draw of the ITA/Regional Championship earlier this fall, sophomore Joey Fritz came from behind to defeat Hopkins’ Andy Hersch 2-6, 6-1, 6-0 in the No. 1 singles match. At No. 2 singles, Mark Kahan ’13 also needed three sets to snag the win, eventually upending Tanner Brown 6-0, 4-6, 6-2.

At No. 3 and No. 5, Andrew Jung ’12 and Chris Dale ’14 each earned straight-set victories, 6-3, 6-3 and 6-3, 6-2, respectively. In doubles, the Lord Jeffs picked up 8-5 wins from Wes Waterman ’12 and Fritz at the top spot and Jon Cypers ’15 and Jung at the third spot, while Jacob Barnaby and Noah Joachim of Johns Hopkins defeated Kahan and Dale 9-8 (2).

The Blue Jays also managed to pick up two singles victories, as Ben Hwang eked out a three-set victory (6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (2)) over Waterman at the No. 4 spot and Jensen Reiter topped Cypers 6-4, 6-3 at the No. 6 spot.

The following day, Amherst traveled to Carnegie Mellon and handed the Tartans an 8-1 defeat. The Lord Jeffs won all six singles matches, including straight-set victories from Fritz, Jung, Waterman, Dale and Cypers. Kahan topped Carnegie Mellon’s Harsha Rao in three sets at the No. 2 spot, and slotted his 20th-straight singles victory with the win.

In doubles play, Amherst’s top two pairs won easily, as Waterman and Fritz slotted an 8-5 win and Kahan and Dale won 8-1. Carnegie Mellon salvaged their lone point of the match at the No. 3 spot when Rao and Thomas Cooper beat Cypers and Jung, 8-3.

This past weekend, the team ended its fall season with an 8-1 win over 25th-ranked MIT to improve to 3-0 and extend its winning streak to 21 straight matches. Kahan also extended his personal undefeated streak to 21 matches, beating Edwin Zhang at the No. 1 spot, 6-4, 7-6 (3).

Amherst took the remainder of the singles matches, including a dominant 6-0, 6-0 victory for junior Alex Kim at No. 6 singles. Amherst took two of the three doubles matches, as the top pairing of Kahan and Dale won 8-6, and Julian Camacho ’12 and Cypers won 8-2 at the third spot. The win cements Amherst’s place at the top of the Div. III. rankings.

Since the beginning of last season, the Jeffs boast a 39-1 record, including the team’s first-ever NCAA National Championship last spring. For now, the end of the fall season might be the only thing keeping the Jeffs from gaining more momentum in their pursuit of a second championship.