Men

The men’s tennis team journeyed to a rainy Williams on Saturday to play in the ITA Regional Tennis Tournament. In what proved to be their first taste of collegiate singles, first-years Ben Fife and Andrew Yaraghi did not disappoint. Fife, unseeded, and Yaraghi, seeded 16th, both battled their way through the 64-player field and eventually met in the final.

Fife faced his first test in his first match of the tournament, dropping the first set 1-6 to Ben DeLuca of Nichols. The first-year seemed to shake off the nerves, taking the second set 6-0 before winning the third-set super-tiebreaker, 10-4.

Winning his next three matches in more convincing style, Fife found himself matched up against the tournament’s top seed, Jeffs captain Mark Kahan ’13. Kahan needed three grueling sets in the quarters, and wouldn’t go down to Fife without a fight.

Fife, clearly unfazed by his teammate, topped Kahan, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 to book a spot in the finals.

Meanwhile, on the otherside of the bracket, Yaraghi made quick work of his opponents in the early rounds. In fact, the Oyster Bay, N.Y. native didn’t drop a set en route to an appearance in the final.

Because of the inclement weather over the weekend, the final will take place tomorrow afternoon at either Amherst or Hampshire if the rain persists.

Led by their breakout rookies, the Jeffs will travel south to Johns Hopkins Univ. on October 6.

Women

The Lady Jeffs traveled east to Cambridge over the weekend to compete in the ITA New England Regional Championship, hosted at MIT. Although no individual or doubles tandem took home gold, it was still an impressive outing for the team as many players advanced deep into their draws.

Most notably, juniors Jen Newman and Zoe Pangalos reached the finals of the doubles bracket before falling to the tournament’s top-seeded tandem: Rebecca Curran and Kara Shoemaker of Williams. The Ephs duo prevented what would have been a third-straight Lady Jeffs’ victory in the doubles bracket.

In singles, Jordan Brewer ’14 reached the semifinals of the singles bracket. Dominating her opening match against Babson’s Sarah Whitaker, 6-0, 6-0, the Woodland Hills, Calif. native then topped Williams’ Riqui McCoy, 6-3, 6-4. Facing Tufts’ Lindsay Katz in the next round, Brewer cruised to a 6-2, 6-0 win.

In the quarters, topped third-seeded Nancy Worley, another Eph, 6-2, 6-4. Booking herself a trip to the semifinals, Brewer met top-seeded LokSze Leung of Middlebury, ultimately falling in straight sets, 6-4, 6-1.

Amherst squares off with Williams this Saturday in their only duel-match of the fall season.