On Saturday, April 20, Amherst traveled to Williamstown, Massachusetts to take on No. 9 ranked Williams. The purple and white put up an admirable fight, but ended up suffering a heartbreaking 5-4 loss at the hands of their archrivals.
The purple and white put on a promising performance on the singles courts, winning three of six after picking up victories on courts two, three and four.
On the number two singles court, first-year Zach Bessette outlasted his opponent in three sets (6-3, 6-7(0-3), 6-0) in order to earn a victory for the purple and white.
Senior Aaron Revzin also picked up a victory on the third singles court, with a painless 6-1, 6-4 sweep over his opponent.
On the fourth singles court, Amherst once again took the match, this time thanks to a hard-faught battle by senior Ben Fife. Fife came back from a one-set deficit to post a 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory.
Although the purple and white split the singles matches with Williams, they were unable to pull away on the doubles courts. The pair of Revzin and senior Michael Solimano won 8-4 on the first doubles court, getting the Amherst squad off to a good start.
Unfortunately, Williams earned victories on both the second and third courts in order to seal the defeat for Amherst.
For their next meet on May 6-8, the purple and white will travel to Bates in Lewiston, Maine in order to compete in the NESCAC men’s tennis championships. Amherst is slated for a rematch of last weekend’s heartbreaking loss when they face the Ephs once again in the first round of postseason action.
“We are definitely looking forward to the challenge,” first-year Jesse Levetin said. “They’ve beaten us twice in a row now, so we are hungry and ready to go take care of business.”