The Amherst men’s tennis team demonstrated its strength this week with a midweek win against Skidmore College and then a victory over NESCAC rival Bates on Saturday to move to 12-4 overall. However, Amherst was defeated by No. 2 Bowdoin the next day to finish the week with a devastating 9-0 loss.
Amherst began the week with a win, taking down Skidmore with a score of 6-3 to move to 11-4 overall.
Junior Anton Zykov dominated court one with a 6-1, 6-1 victory, while senior Michael Solimano won 6-2, 6-0 on court two. Zach Bessette ’19, Aaron Revzin ’16 and senior Ben Fife also secured singles wins to put Amherst in the lead.
In doubles action, Zykov and Andrew Yaraghi ’16 earned the purple and white’s sole win, defeating Jonah Epstein and Kit Sanderson 8-6 on the second court.
After traveling to Lewiston, Maine for Saturday’s matchup, Amherst won five of six singles matches again to take down NESCAC rival Bates, 8-1.
On court one, Zykov took down Bates’ Ben Rosen in a three set victory, finishing the match at 4-6, 6-3, 10-7. Bessette swept aside Fergus Scott (6-1, 6-1) at the number three singles spot, while Yaraghi, Fife and Justin Sun ’19 swept Bates opponents at spots four, five and six.
For doubles, dynamic duo Aaron Revzin ’16 and Solimano came out with an 8-5 win on the first court, while Yaraghi and Zykov battled for a 9-8 (8-6) victory in the number two doubles spot. Fife and Bessette crushed their opponents, 8-1, to finish out the purple and white doubles sweep.
The Amherst win streak came to an end the next day, when the purple and white fell to Bowdoin 9-0 in Brunswick, Maine.
None of the Amherst singles made it to three sets; Zykov, Yaraghi and Bessette all came up short against their NESCAC opponents in a round of challenging matches. The team struggled agains in the doubles matches; Solimano and Revzin, Zykov and Yaraghi and Fife and Bessette all walked away with a loss to end the week.
Amherst returns to action with three home matches this weekend. First, the purple and white face MIT on Friday, April 15 at 3 p.m. They then face NESCAC rival Wesleyan on Sunday, April 17 (time TBA), before taking on non-conference foe Springfield at 3 p.m.
