Men Conclude Successful Fall Season

The youthful and talented men’s team continued its ascendancy in the East during the brief fall season. Captains Ben Stein ’09 and Danilo Acosta ’08 led the Bobcats to a strong showing at the Middlebury Invitational. Stein reached the finals of the A-Flight of singles. Acosta earned Bobcat of the Week honors after winning the C-Flight of singles and reaching the finals of the B-Flight of doubles with Zach Fenno ’10. Fall invitational tournaments are a good opportunity to test out our talent and to get some match experience against some of the top teams in the region. The ITA Regional Championship indicates where we stack up against the top players in the Northeast. Stein emphasized why he is one of the elite players in arguably the nation’s strongest region. cruising through to the semifinals of singles, where he fell in a hard-fought 3-set contest. Stein joined the Sri Lankan Men’s National Champion and Davis Cup Member, Amrit Rupasinghe ’10, to reach the finals of the doubles Championships, where they lost a very closely contested match to the eventual ITA Small College National Champions. In the first duel match of the season, the Bobcats soundly defeated NESCAC opponent Wesleyan, 9-0. Dedicated to working hard in the off-season, the men’s team looks forward to improving upon its past success when the spring season rolls around.

Ryan Mannelly ‘10

Women Look to Build Upon Strong Fall Season

The women’s team opened up its fall season with a resounding victory over the University of Southern Maine, 9-0, dropping only three games throughout the entire match. At the ITA Championships, Cecilia Grissa ’08 and Alex Piacquad ’10 defeated a strong Amherst team, who was later a top seed at the New England Women’s Intercollegiate Tennis Tournament (NEWITT). Grissa’s success continued at the NEWITT tournament, reaching the quarterfinals of the #1 Singles flight. Captain Mallika Raghavan ’08 and Liz Fleming ’08 had a strong showing in the #2 doubles flight, reaching the Round of 16 before falling in a hotly contested match. The Bobcats anticipate the return of Captain Caryn Benisch ’09, who studied abroad in Cairo during the fall semester. The women will continue their hard work and are hopeful that their efforts during the offseason will pay dividends in the spring.

  Cecilia Grissa ‘08

Men’s Tennis Rolls Over Wesleyan, 9-0

October 7, 2007

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. — Playing its first head-to-head match of the year, the Bates College men’s tennis team routed NESCAC rival Wesleyan University by a 9-0 score Sunday, dropping the host Cardinals to 1-2.

Bates hosts the annual Wallach Invitational this weekend, starting Saturday at 9 a.m. at the Wallach Tennis Center.

Bates College (1-0) 9, Wesleyan University (1-2) 0

SINGLES
#1 – Ben Stein (B) def. Matt O’Connell (W), 6-1, 0-6, 6-2
#2 – Amrit Rupasinghe (B) def. Pauri Pandian (W), 6-2, 6-0
#3 – Mike Reiss (B) def. Michael Frank (W), 6-1, 6-0
#4 – Ryan Mannelly (B) def. Paul Gerdes (W), 6-1, 4-6, (10-3)
#5 – Zach Fenno (B) def. Roy Chung (W), 6-0, 7-5
#6 – Danilo Acosta (B) def. Jaafar Rizvi (W), 6-3, 7-6 (0)

DOUBLES
#1 – Stein/Rupasinghe (B) def. O’Connell/Rizvi (W), 8-3
#2 – Max Berger/Mannelly (B) def. Pandian/Alejandro Alvarado (W), 8-2
#3 – Fenno/Acosta (B) def. Max Schenkein/Matt Schaff (W), 8-2

Bobcats Shine at ITA Championships

September 30, 2007

Amrit Rupasinghe ‘10 (left) and Ben Stein ‘09

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Bates College junior Ben Stein was a semifinalist in singles and a finalist in doubles with sophomore teammate Amrit Rupasinghe to highlight the Bobcats men’s tennis team’s weekend at the ITA Division III Men’s Regional Championships, hosted by Williams College.

Seeded fourth in the 56-player field, Stein (Pelham, N.Y.) reached the semifinals by beating Steven Nieman of Brandeis 6-4, 6-4, Mike Mintz of Amherst, 6-2, 6-0 in a round of 16 match, and beating the fifth-seeded Andrew Thomson of Middlebury, 6-2, 1-6, 6-2 in the quarterfinals. Trinity’s Spencer Feldman ended Stein’s run in a semifinal battle, 2-6, 6-4, 7-5.

Meanwhile, Stein and Rupasinghe (Colombo, Sri Lanka) advanced four rounds in the doubles bracket to meet Middlebury’s Marinkovic/Thomson duo in the championship round, where they dropped a narrow 8-6 decision. The unseeded Bobcat pair defeated, in order, Neely/Fried of Bowdoin (8-5), Furnaga/Devlin of Williams (9-7), Wan/Schwartz of Amherst (by withdrawal) and Gates/Sullivan of Bowdoin (8-6) in the semifinals.

On the other side of the doubles bracket, Bates sophomores Maxwell Berger (Concord, N.H.) and Ryan Mannelly (New Canaan, Conn.) teamed up to defeat Braude/Whitter of UMass-Boston 8-3 before bowing out to top-seeded Lerner/Avrahami of Amherst 8-4.

Bates sophomore Michael Reiss (Rockville Centre, N.Y.) advanced two rounds in the singles bracket, downing Eliot Jia of Middlebury (7-5, 6-2) and Nick Lebedoff of Williams (2-1 ret.) before Feldman ended his run as well.

Rupasinghe and Berger also won their opening-round singles matches.