The College's men's tennis team continued its seven-game winning streak by trouncing Connecticut College 7-0. The win gives them four shutouts on the season with a 7-1 record and leaves Connecticut at 0-5.
The Lions ran away with the match, having only one set within four games and beating the Camels 97 individual games to 19.
The annihilation began in doubles play as sophomore co-captain Ryan Carty and sophomore Corey Ball defeated junior Ned Minevitz and freshman Craig Hutchinson of Connecticut 8-2 in first doubles. The trend continued as the second doubles team, seniors Ken Tsui and Victor Lai, dominated over Camels' freshman Gabriel Sidman and sophomore Ben Sherman 8-2.
The Lions also took the third doubles match as freshmen Eric Ferriere and Mike Klimchak beat senior Brandon Gatlin and freshman Jamie Harris 8-1.
"Their team was one of the weaker teams that we played all year," Klimchak said. "But a win is a win no matter who you play so overall I guess it was a good trip."
The victorious pattern remained uninterrupted as the Lions entered singles play.
Carty began by ruling the court in his first singles victory against Minevitz 6-1, 6-0. Carty now holds a 17-2 record in singles play this year and is vying for a singles birth into nationals along with All-American status.
Junior Justin Cook edged Hutchinson 7-5 in the first set but played stronger in the second to defeat him 6-2 in second singles. In third singles, Mike Klimchak shut out Sidman in all games for a 6-0, 6-0 triumph.
Despite Sunday's overpowering win, the Lions have a lot of competition ahead of them.
"The last eight matches of our season include a lot of good teams, four of which we lost to last year," head coach Scott Dicheck said. "Currently, three of those teams are also ranked ahead of us, so we will just go match by match."
The mid-season rankings will come out around April 15 and how high the Lions are ranked depends on how they do in the next few matches.
"I don't really have any predictions because I've never seen any of the three teams (Bates College, University of Rochester and Wheaton College) play," Klimchak said. "But because our team has such great competitors, you never know what could happen; we could win all three."
Women's tennis suffered their second loss of the season to Connecticut College 5-4. The match puts them at 11-2 for the year and improves Connecticut to 7-5.
The Lions were only able to collect one win in doubles play, sacrificing the point to the Camels. Freshman Christina Contrafatto and junior captain Jackie Gavornik squeaked by sophomores Beret Remak and Amanda Poe 9-7 as the second and third doubles teams both fell to their foes 8-6.
Freshman Lisa Steckmest and senior Laura Demoreuille of Connecticut slipped by sophomore Kristen Turturiello and senior Katie D'Amato in second doubles while freshman Kari Barklis and junior Holly Bawden defeated the College's sophomores Karen Shih and Ayumi Yamazaki in a tight third doubles match.
The Lions then went 3-3 in singles play, which was not enough to take the match away from the Camels.
Contrafatto endured a first singles loss to Remak 6-1, 6-3, while Turturiello followed by almost forcing a third set to lose to Steckmest in second singles 6-3, 7-5.
"The match today was hard," Contrafatto said. "But that makes us want to push ourselves harder."
Yamazaki picked up some slack for the Lions as she vanquished her opposition 6-1, 6-1 in third singles. D'Amato then sustained a loss to Poe 6-3, 6-7 in the tiebreaker, and then 6-0 in the final set of fourth singles.
Gavornik then turned things back around for the Lions streaking past freshman Danielle Coleman of Connecticut 6-1, 6-2 to earn a 10-1 dual match record in singles play so far this season. Shih then wrapped up the competition in Connecticut to squash her adversary 6-1, 6-0.
"I'm not surprised because it was a tough loss and a great match," Dicheck said. "It went back and forth the whole time and it could have gone either way."
This weekend, men's and women's tennis will face Vassar College at home on April 9. On April 10, the Lions will host Wheaton College in the Lions' Sesquicentennial Match.
