In consecutive days the men ended their season playing Bowdoin, Tufts, and Williams. First at home was Bowdoin and rain forced the match indoors. Play started with doubles and though the bobcats put up two 9-7 matches, they dropped all three spots and found themselves in a big hole. In singles Rob and Timmy won three-set matches to close the gap but Bowdoin won #1 and #4 to give themselves the team win. The Bobcats lost by an end score of 6-3 as Kyle DeSisto pulled out another win for the bobcats.
The following day we travelled to Tufts in hopes of keeping our NESCAC tournaments chances alive. Play started with doubles and the bobcats bounced back from the prior days match and captured #3 doubles 8-6. Tufts evened the score at #2 with an 8-1 win and then the crowd focused in on an intense #1 match. Matt and Rob found themselves in a hole down a break 5-6 but they clawed their way back into the match and played well in crunch time for the 9-7 comeback victory. Needing 3 singles matches for the team win the top 3 went to work. Finishing within ten minutes of each other, Matt, Rob, and Timmy all won their matches by scores of 6-2 6-2 to give the cats the win.
In the final team match of the year we made the trip to Williams to take on the Ephs. Williams put themselves on the board first with a win at #2 doubles. At #3 Williams took a second point as Timmy and Kyle played a good 8-5 match, but were unable to capitalize on their break chances. At #1 Matt and Rob kept the teams chances alive as they gutted out another tough match 8-6 over the very talented duo of Micheli and Chow. In singles the Ephs were very deep and closed the door on the match by taking 4,5, and 6. At #1 Matt played an hour and a half first set before dropping it in a tie-breaker. The second set was close but today Felix Sun just played a little better. At #2 Rob lost the first 9 games of the match before making a stand. He came back and won the second set 6-4 to even things up. He ended up losing in the third but he showed a lot of guts to not throw in the towel after such a large deficit. At #3 Timmy scored the lone singles win for the cats. Playing a tough grinder in Trey Meyer, Berg also went three sets, winning the first 6-2 before dropping the second 6-4. In the super Timmy imposed his will, ripping forehands to one corner in order to open up the other side for attack. He pulled out the match 10-6.
Unfortunately, this ended up being our last team match for the year. Trinity, Tufts, and Bates were in a 3-way tie for 5th place, but due to tie-breakers, we were edged out of the NESCAC tournament. It was a bitter way to end the season but is only motivating the team to push themselves harder for next season. The year is not done for everyone though, as Matt will be making the trip to Claremont, California for singles nationals, and Rob will accompany him as they are the first alternates in the doubles draw.
Bates College Tennis 