Men’s tennis battles with defending champs

On a beautiful, crisp fall Saturday morning, the Hopkins men’s tennis team welcomed Amherst to nearby Morgan State University for a matchup that featured the defending Division III national champions in Amherst and the seventh-seeded Jays. The match proved to be the most highly contested of the Jays brief fall season, as Hopkins pushed the Lord Jeffs to the brink before falling 5-4. The match was one of the longest that the Jays have played this season, as the doubles and singles brackets combined to take over four hours long.

While the Jays often come out firing on all cylinders, it was Amherst who was able to capture the early advantage in the match. To begin, the Hopkins duo of senior Tanner Brown and freshman Justin Kang at third doubles was unable to find a rhythm against Amherst senior Andrew Arnaboldi and junior Andrew Yaraghi who claimed the match by a final score of 8-3. The Lord Jeffs extended their lead to 2-0 in the second doubles match when the powerful serves of Amherst juniors Russell Einbinder and Michael Solimano proved to be the demise of junior Nicholas Garcia and senior Noah Joachim. However, the sophomore powerhouse combination of Michael Buxbaum and Emerson Walsh delivered at first doubles for Hopkins, preventing the doubles sweep by defeating Aaron Revzin and Andrew Scheiner 8-6.

Moving into the singles portion of the match, with the Jays trailing 2-1, Buxbaum delivered for the second time during the match as he dismantled Solimano in straight sets by final scores of 6-4, 6-1. Buxbaum, who returned to Baltimore after competing in the USTA/ITA National College Tournament in Sumter, S.C., showed zero signs of fatigue and quickly disposed of the number one player from the 2014 national championship team.

After knotting the score at 2-2, sophomore Jeremy Dubin gave Hopkins the lead after defeating Scheiner in straight sets 6-2, 6-1 at fifth singles. Dubin only lost three games in the entire match and rarely dropped a point on serve. However, the lead was short lived for Hopkins as Revzin returned to the court and defeated senior Ben Hwang in straight sets 7-5, 6-1 at second singles. Revzin was able to avenge his loss to Buxbaum and Walsh in doubles and level the match at 3-3.

Shortly thereafter, Brown battled Yaraghi at third singles and dropped a heartbreaker in the first set of the match, falling in a tiebreaker, 7-6. However, Brown was unable to find his serve and was broken twice in the second set before falling 6-2. The Lord Jeffs now clung to a 4-3 lead and needed just one more victory to seal the match.

With the risk of allowing the Lord Jeffs to claim the victory, Joachim entered the court and cruised to an easy straight-sets victory by a final score of 6-2, 6-1 against Schiener.

With the match deadlocked at 4-4 and only the sixth singles match remaining, the outcome of the match was set to be decided by a faceoff featuring Walsh and Arnaboldi. As befitting of a match of this magnitude, it required three sets overall. Hopkins appeared to have the early advantage after Walsh battled to a 7-6 first set victory, but Arnaboldi brought the Jeffs back by downing Walsh in the second set, 6-3. In the third set of the match, Walsh broke early and was unable to recover as Arnaboldi took the set 6-3, sealing the victory for Amherst by a final of 5-4.

As mentioned above, Buxbaum and Walsh also traveled to South Carolina to compete in the ITA National Small College Championships. In the singles bracket, Buxbaum took home fourth place overall. After being dominant in his first match of the tournament, Buxbaum fell in his second match to Matt Heinrich of Stevens in straight sets 6-2, 7-5. He then withdrew from the third place match to return home for the match against Amherst.

In the doubles bracket, Buxbaum and Walsh teamed up as the first Hopkins duo to ever earn a seed at the ITA tournament, the first seed overall. Much to the dismay of the talented duo, Buxbaum and Walsh were ousted in the first round of the tournament in a three-set heartbreaker and eventually ended the tournament in seventh place overall.

While the outcome wasn’t what they wanted it to be, Walsh is still confident in the duos ability to succeed.

“We came into the tournament feeling pretty solid about our play. I really think Mike and I are playing great doubles right now. We now have the chance to be the best doubles pair when the spring season comes around.”

The trip to South Carolina and the team match against Amherst concluded the fall season for the Jays, and the boys will continue to build off of their successes and improve on their game in preparation for an exciting spring season.