AMHERST, Mass. – After falling behind 2-1 in the doubles portion, the No. 26 ranked Wesleyan men's tennis team posted wins at #1 and #3 singles to take a 3-2 lead only to see the Mammoths rattle off four consecutive wins in the four remaining singles matches to take a 6-3 victory in the Little 3 showdown. Wesleyan (3-4, 2-1 NESCAC) drops their first conference match of the season while Amherst (5-3, 2-0 NESCAC) has rebounded from a recent three-match losing streak and now sports a two-game win streak.
Amherst jumped out to the early 2-0 lead, earning 8-5 wins at both #1 and #3 doubles. The Cardinals began their rally attempt with a hard-fought win at #2.
Zach Lieb '22 and
Harry Portnoy '24 were locked in a great match that went into a tiebreak with Harris Foulkes and Ed Opie. In the tiebreak, Lieb and Portnoy managed a 7-4 win to take the 8-7 victory, salvaging one point for Wesleyan heading into singles play.
Needing to make up some ground, Wesleyan continued to push and got a pair of early wins as
Peter Anker '22 defeated Damien Ruparel at #1 with a dominating 6-3, 6-3 win.
Ben Mitchell '24 then followed with a very close 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-2) win at #3 over Sujit Chepuri that required tiebreak wins in both sets but suddenly Wesleyan turned a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead in team points.
From then on, however, it was all Amherst as the Mammoths' Willie Turchetta won 6-3, 6-4 over
Max Lee '22 at #5 before Harris Foulkes took down Lieb at #2 with a 6-4, 6-4 win, moving just one point away from securing the match victory. That clinching point came at #6 with Micah Elias defeating
Max Lustgarten '25 6-3, 6-0.
Even with the match in-hand, Portnoy fought to the end in the #4 match that required a third set tiebreak. Opie won the opening set 6-4 before Portnoy rallied with a 6-1 second set win. In the third set, the two traded points in an extended set that went into double digits on both sides before Opie ultimately pulled out a 12-10 win to secure another point for Amherst.
Wesleyan will spend the next five days preparing for a very tough home NESCAC weekend as the Cardinals welcome No. 9 Middlebury on Saturday and No. 6 Williams on Sunday. Both matches are set for 10 AM starts from the John Wood Memorial Tennis Courts.
