Box Score MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – On a day that saw five of the nine total matches need a tiebreak to determine a winner, the Wesleyan men's tennis team did enough to secure a 7-2 win over Bates on Sunday afternoon from the John Wood Memorial Tennis Courts. Wesleyan (4-7, 3-4 NESCAC) picked up a much needed win after losing four straight head into today while the Bobcats (3-7, 1-4 NESCAC) have lost two straight and are 1-7 playing away from home this season.
Doubles play saw Wesleyan take a 3-0 lead but the Cardinals certainly had to work for those points in the #2 and #3 contests.
Zach Lieb '22 and
Harry Portnoy '24 pulled out a close 8-6 win at #2 over Leo Kupferman and Teddy Koide while
Clay Gaieski '23 and
Max Lustgarten '25 were locked in an extended match that lasted nearly 90 minutes against Paul Zhou and Nikesh Desai. Needing a tiebreak, Gaieski and Lustgarten scored a 7-4 win to take the match.
Peter Anker '22 and
Ben Mitchell '24, meanwhile, coasted to an 8-2 win at #1 over Alexander Gujarathi and Matthew Danielson.
Taking a lead into singles play, Wesleyan didn't take long to seal the victory as Portnoy took down Danielson at #4 with a 6-3, 6-3 win and Lustgarten defeated Alexander Archer by the same set score line at #6 as the Cardinals led 5-0 in the match, clinching victory.
In the four remining singles matches, all of them saw play head into a third set tiebreak starting with Lieb at #2 as Gujarathi won the first set 6-2 only to see Lieb answer back with a 6-1 second set win. In the tiebreak, Lieb triumphed and tacked on another point for Wesleyan.
Max Lee '22 nearly pulled out a thrilling win at #5 as Koide took the opening set 6-3 before Lee responded with a 6-2 victory in the second set. In a very close tiebreak, it was Koide who eventually pulled out a 11-9 win to put Bates on the board.
Anker and Nick Forester played to a thrilling back-and-forth match at #1 as Forester won the opening set tiebreak 13-11 before hit back with a. 6-1 second set win. In the third set tiebreak, extra points were required before Anker came through with a gutty 12-10 win to lock up his second victory of the day.
In the final singles match, Mitchell and Kupferman played for 147 minutes before Kupferman sealed a 7-6, 5-7, 10-6 victory in yet another thrilling match in a day that had several.
Wesleyan heads into the week with just one non-conference match on the slate as the Cardinals welcome Brandeis on Friday for a 4 PM start.
