The men's and women's tennis teams both brought their overall season records to 3-3 this Saturday after making a trip to Pennsylvania to take on the Centennial Conference whipping boy Muhlenberg. It was relatively smooth sailing for both teams as both teams finished the day capping off twin 9-0 victories.
The win against Muhlenberg was especially notable for the men's team as it marked their 21st consecutive Centennial victory, but the match also held special meaning for sophomore Andrew Wang, who tallied his 30th career singles victory at the day's end. "Every match I win feels great, but it's about more than accumulating individual wins," a humble Wang said. "When we step out there everyday, our main goal is training our hardest so we can make a run at the NCAA championship."
"Andrew Wang has begun to surface as one of the best players in Division III," senior teammate Tripp Weber said. "He had an outstanding fall season and is putting himself in a strong position to earn a bid to the NCAA Singles tournament in May. Wang and junior David Maldow already earned a bid to doubles by winning the ITA Regional Championship."
Despite the odds, the men's team did not take their opponents lightly and opened the match with the same intensive fury with which they approach any competitor. The Blue Jays swept the three doubles matches with decisive victories by the duos of freshman Warren Elgort and junior Peter Vale, who won by a score of 8-5, Wang and Weber who blanked their opponents 8-0, and freshman Jacob Barnaby and sophomore Jake Schneiders, who capped of the massacre with an 8-1 finish.
The men followed suit in the singles portion of competition, annihilating the Muhlenberg competition without losing a single set. Wang, Elgort, Vale, Barnaby, Schneiders and Weber tore through their competition with ease, losing a mere 11 games on their seamless path to victory.
"We respect every team we play because you never know what a given day will bring," Weber said. "With that said, we knew that if we brought our game with any six players on our roster and came prepared physically and mentally, we would take the match. Our roster is shamefully deep for a Division III team with each player capable of winning nearly every match he plays."
The men's team is currently ranked 17th in Division III and only stands to climb the rankings as the season progresses.
"We started off the season by playing some of the best teams in the nation - namely Amherst who is close to cracking the top five - the number-one ranked team in all of Division II, Barry University and Florida powerhouse Flagler College," Weber said. "These are the toughest matches we will face in the regular season, and we plan on running the table from here on out."
The 21st-ranked women's team toppled Muhlenberg with similar ease, sweeping the doubles competition to claim an early 3-0 lead. The duo of senior Brittany Matava and freshman Carolyn Warren opened the match with an 8-3 win, followed by junior Anita Bhamidipati and sophomore Yasmine Elamir's 8-5 victory. Junior Ellen Berlinghof and sophomore Abby Dwyer team-best fifth season victory with an 8-4 finish.
The women proceeded to sweep the singles competition to cap off their shut-out victory, but the singles match that drew the most attention was that of Bhamidipati, whose victory over Muhlenberg's Caitie Druker marked her 49th career singles win, tying her for the second most in Hopkins women's tennis history.
With the win, the women moved up to their highest national ranking ever, coming in at eighth in the polls. On Tuesday, the women's team continued its dominance with their third consecutive conference shut-out, blanking the Dickinson Red Devils 9-0. Hopkins conceded only 21 games in nine matches, while winning 96.
After the team's trouncing of the Mules, they look to join the men's team on the season-long quest for national dominance; neither team plans on taking any opponent on their path lightly.
"I guess any conference team could be considered a threat and Muhlenberg was thought to be one of the top contenders in our conference," Dwyer said. "But we completely destroyed them and we didn't even play our real starting line-up (We replaced both myself and captain Brittany Matava out for injuries.) Conference matches are always important no matter how weak the team is, because this is our ticket to Nationals. I think we just went in with the right amount of confidence, not too much and not too little, which is what really made the difference and allowed us to completely dominate."
The men's and women's tennis teams will take on conference rivals Ursinus next Saturday in Baltimore at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. respectively, looking to add yet another Centennial notch to their belt as they fight toward national glory.
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