The No. 4 Amherst men’s tennis team has now won 10 straight matches, all by a score of at least 7-2 following impressive victories over No. 20 Bates (8-1) and No. 6 Middlebury (9-0) at home this weekend.

The Jeffs (19-4) completed a perfect month of April in which they won all nine matches, which included seven victories in the competitive NESCAC conference to secure the regular season title. The Jeffs seem to be getting stronger as they approach the NESCAC tournament, having won the last five matches by at least an 8-1 score.

On Friday, April 24, Amherst hosted No. 20 Bates, who entered the match 9-6 (4-2 NESCAC). As had been the case in the previous four matches, Amherst swept doubles play to get off to an early 3-0 lead. The dynamic duo of juniors Aaron Revzin and Michael Solimano earned an 8-3 win at No. 1, which would end up being the closest of all the doubles matches. Andrew Yaraghi ’16 and sophomore Anton Zykov won 8-0 at No. 2, and senior co-captain Andrew Scheiner and Russell Einbinder ’16 posted an 8-1 victory at No. 3.

In singles play, Yaraghi dropped the first set by a score of 5-7, but then battled back to win the second and third sets by scores of 6-2, 10-6 respectively. Solimano (at No. 2), Revzin (at No. 3), senior co-captain Sean Rodriguez (at No. 4) and Andrew Arnaboldi ‘17 (at No. 6) won in straight sets. Scheiner lost a close one at No. 5 by a score of 4-6, 6-4, 9-11, which gave Bates their only point on the afternoon.

“Our doubles really made the difference this weekend,” Yaraghi said. “On Friday, against Bates, we came out ready to battle in some tough conditions. Getting the doubles sweep gave us a nice cushion going into singles and we were able to win five out of the six singles points against a dangerous Bates team.”

The next day, the Jeffs swept No. 6 Middlebury, who came into the match tied with Amherst for first place in the NESCAC with a 6-0 conference record and a very respectable 16-2 overall record. Amherst was relentless, stepping up when the points mattered most.

Once again, Amherst got off to an early lead behind three triumphs from the same three doubles teams that played against Bates. Revzin and Solimano were in a close contest, trailing 5-6 but on serve. After tying the match, the pair got a break before serving to win the match by a score of 8-6. Yaraghi and Zykov won easily at No. 2 by a 8-3 mark, while Scheiner and Einbinder outlasted Middlebury at No. 3.

Einbinder made several highlight-worthy plays, including chasing down a drop shot before fully extending his body to hit a winner at a sharp angle over the net late in the match. The two would also trail in a tiebreaker before ultimately prevailing 9-8.

In singles play, the Jeffs were equally dominant. Zykov on court 3, Revzin on court 4 and Rodriguez on court 5 each won in straight sets. At No. 1, Yaraghi dropped the first set before ultimately winning the second two sets by a score of 2-6, 6-4, 11-9. Solimano at No. 2 (6-1, 4-6, 10-7) and Arnaboldi at No. 6 (6-7, 7-6, 10-2) won in three sets to complete the sweep for Amherst over Middlebury.

“We were well aware of Middlebury’s strength in singles, so we were sure to work on every court,” Yaraghi said. “We were able to notch 3 points in straight sets and 3 more in third set victories. We’ll take these dual match victories with us into NESCACs this weekend.”

The Jeffs look to build on their NESCAC regular season title by shifting their focus to winning the conference postseason tournament. Amherst will be the No. 1 seed with a first round bye in the six-team NESCAC championship draw. The three-day tournament will be hosted by Middlebury and starts Friday, May 1.