The Amherst men’s tennis team had a busy yet extremely successful fall break weekend. The Jeff split squads with one playing two dual matches against Johns Hopkins and Carnegie Mellon and the other played at Bates in the Wallach Invitational.

Going into Saturday, the Jeffs knew they were going to face some tough competition. After doubles play, the team was extremely satisfied with their results, and it proved to be the difference in the match. The Jeffs won by an overall match score of 5-4.

Sophomore duo Michael Solimano and Aaron Revzin continued their great play together as the number two doubles team and defeated their Blue Jay opponents, 8-4. In the third spot, Andrew Yaraghi ’16 and Anton Zykov ’17 knocked off juniors Edward Corty and Erik Lim with ease by a score of 8-2.

Unfortunately, the number one doubles team, Joey Fritz ’14 and Justin Reindel ’14, fell 8-4, to their first-year opponents, Michael Buxbaum and Emerson Walsh.

The 2-1 lead from the doubles matches proved to be the deciding factor in the match as the teams evenly split the singles matches.

Solimano had little trouble against his opponent, beating Nicholas Garcia 6-2, 6-0, to give the Jeffs a 3-1 lead. However, Michael Buxbaum answered with a win against Yaraghi 6-4, 6-2, to bring the Blue Jays within one. Jeremy Dublin followed with a win against Revzin to bring the score to an even 3-3.

With the score tied, Zykov gave Amherst an edge by defeating Erik Lim in a highly contested match, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4. Captain Fritz was also able to come out victorious from his extremely competitive match, 7-5, 5-7, 6-1, to clinch the win for Amherst.

In the remaining match, Reindel went the distance to three sets, but he was unable to top Sam Weissler, losing 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

The next day, Amherst traveled to Carnegie Mellon to finish their fall season by defeating a previously undefeated Tartans team 5-4, to finish their fall season undefeated.

The Jeffs got off to another 2-1 start from the doubles matches. Carnegie Mellon got off to a fast start by winning the first doubles match, 8-4, over Fritz and Reindel.

However, Solimano and Revzin earned another win, defeating Yuvraj Kumar and Bryce Beisswanger, 8-6, in a well-played match. Yaraghi and Zykov defeated a pair of first-year Tartans, 8-6, in another display of talented play.

Christian Hearney-Secord brought his team back to even with a decisive 6-1, 6- 1 win over Yaraghi in the second singles spot. Fritz gave the Jeffs the edge with a 6-4, 6-3 victory in the first singles spot against first-year Abhishek Alla.

Zykov fell in the third singles spot, 6-2, 6-4, while Reindel handled his opponent, 6-4, 6-2, in the fifth singles spot. Revzin then lost his match, 7-5, 6-3, in the sixth singles spot.

With the match at a stalemate, 4-4, the deciding match fell in the hands of Solimano in the fourth singles spot. After losing the first set 4-6, Solimano bounced back to win the second and third set 6-2, 6-4 respectively to seal the victory.

A second group of Jeffs traveled north to Bates. Highlights of the invitational include two championship victories. Chris Dale ’14 defeated Trinity’s Rutendo Matingo in the ‘C’ singles bracket, while Carlos de Bracamonte ’16 defeated fellow teammate Phillip Qu ’16 in the ‘D’ singles bracket, 6-3, 6-3.

When asked to reflect upon the weekend, de Bracamonte remarked, “Last year, we lost both matches against Johns Hopkins and Carnegie Mellon, so it was nice to win both of those matches this year”.

The Jeffs close their 2013 fall season with much more success compared to their 2012 fall season, as they went undefeated this fall.