This past weekend the bobcats travelled to Williams for the ITA Regional Tournament. For this tournament, the top 64 singles players from the region are selected and the top 32 doubles teams. Playing in the toughest ITA in the country, Bates was given 4 singles entries and 2 doubles pairings. Due to inclement weather play was pushed inside and started off with doubles. Timmy Berg and Matt Bettles came out firing against an experienced pairing from Springfield College. Matt and Timmy won 8-0 and were the only team in the tournament to blank their opponents. In the round of 16 they faced Brandeis’s number 1 pair in Steven Milo and David Yovanoff. There were many long points as both teams played aggressive doubles pounding first serves and ripping cross court returns. After 8 games the score was knotted at 4-4. In the remaining games the bobcats maintained a high energy level and stayed disciplined, advancing to the quarterfinal round 8-4. In the quarters the bobcats faced Williams number 1 pairing, Trey Meyer and Bryan Chow. It was a 90 minute battle, played with high energy, big serves and returns, and some very impressive lobbing. The bobcats got broken the first game of the match but got the break back at 4-5 to even things up. Each team would have more break points as long deuce games ensued, but during a 6-6 game the bobcats got broken again and Williams served up a big game to close it out 8-6. Trey and Bryan would go on to win the tournament, with this being their closest match.
The bobcats had 4 singles players in the draw. Playing in his first ITA Eric Ruta came out in a big way, beating Zach Goodstein from Clark 6-1 6-1. Also playing in his first ITA was Pierre Planche. Pierre played fellow first-year Alec Seigel from Brandeis. Pierre gave the bobcats their second singles victory of the day and won 6-4 6-2 in a very solid showing. Timmy Berg had a tough first round matching up against #2 for Bowdoin, Sam King. Timmy played a good first set, rocking his serve and attacking the net to win the set 6-4. King was not about to go away though, and fought back claiming the second set 6-1 and forcing the match to a super tie-breaker. In the breaker Timmy got back to his game plan, banging first serves, working for every ball, hitting big and heavy through the middle, and attacking short balls. He executed very well in the clutch and won his match 10-5. Matt Bettles played his first round match against Steven Milo from Brandeis. Matt stayed focused and with his game plan the entire match, and fended off some excellent attacking by Milo to advance to the second round 6-4 6-2.
In the round of 32 Timmy played Jon Cypers, a member of the defending national champion Amherst College. Jon is their top recruit for this year and had just taken out Colby’s #1 6-3 6-0. As in the past, Timmy welcomed the challenge and played his best match of the tournament. Bringing his serve the entire match Timmy was never broken and was able to apply pressure on Cypers in the big games. At 4-4 Timmy was aggressive on short balls and attacked with his forehand finishing most points at the net. Timmy served big at 5-4 to close out the set. The second set was much of the same, many long games until it was tied 4-4. Timmy then gutted out a break and served big for the 6-4 6-4 victory. In his second round Matt had a tough opponent facing undefeated Musyoka Mbithi from Trinity fresh off his championship at the previous weekend’s Middlebury Invitational. Mbithi brought a big game, a large serve, an equally big forehand, and impressive foot speed. However, Matt is a very intelligent player and put together a winning game plan, mixing things up to Mbithi and then attacking his backhand. Matt served big and worked hard for every ball, making passing shots that wowed the massive crowd. In the end Bettles came out on top with the 6-4 6-2 win for the bobcats.
In the round of 16 Timmy played Bryan Chow from Williams. Timmy got his vengeance from their doubles match and played tough in the big moments to win a first set tie-breaker 7-6 (7-2). In the second set Timmy worked hard on every point and outlasted the very skilled Chow 6-4. In Matt’s third match, he played All-American Branter Jones from Middlebury. Jones has a huge game, bombing serves and attacking the net on almost every point. This was Matt’s best match of the tournament and he worked his butt off for every point, playing excellent defense and picking the right times to attack back. Matt displayed amazing foot speed with some of his gets and making his opponent play one more ball each point made all the difference. Matt mixed in topspin lobs with dipping passing shots to take the match 6-2 6-3 in a very impressive showing.
In the quarterfinals both Matt and Timmy would come up short, as Timmy played last years champion and All-American Felix Sun, and Matt played this years champion Joey Fritz. Both competed till the end but their opponents played well and deserve credit for playing the high level they did. Overall this was a solid showing for the bobcats. We played very good doubles and gave the champions their toughest match, all of our singles players won rounds, and we had 2 in the top 8 which is the same as national champion Amherst. The bobcats will continue to work hard and will be playing again in two weeks as we host our annual Wallach Invitational.
