On the last weekend of September, the Hopkins men’s tennis team traveled down to Fredericksburg, Va. to compete in the ITA Southeast Regional tournament.
The Jays proved victorious in all four competitions they entered, including the championship singles and doubles draws and the Blue 1 and Blue 2 division singles. Sophomore Michael Buxbaum led the team with a championship win in the men’s singles draw before coming back to win the men’s doubles draw with sophomore Emerson Walsh. Also contributing to the championship weekend were senior Jensen Reiter and freshman Justin Kang, who won the Blue 1 singles and Blue 2 singles draws, respectively.
Buxbaum was the top seed going into the championship singles draw and never looked anything less than outstanding. Starting with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Justin Cerny of Christopher Newport University, Buxbaum cruised to the finals where he faced the defending national champion, Abhishek Alla of Carnegie Mellon University. After falling behind 4-1, Buxbaum would rally to win the first set 7-6. He would then drop the second set 2-6, before coming back to win the third set 6-4 and take the title. Buxbaum became the third Hopkins tennis player to win the ITA Southeast Regional Singles title in program history and the first to win the singles bracket in consecutive years.
Coming back after the singles tournament, Buxbaum teamed up with Walsh to make a championship run in the men’s doubles draw. The duo started their campaign with an 8-0 victory over Matyas Kohout and Dean Polisena of Junita College in the second round after receiving a first round bye. The team then proceeded to conquer doubles teams from Bridgewater College and the University of Mary Washington before advancing to the semifinals, where they faced teammates Tanner Brown and Justin Kang. Buxbaum and Walsh defeated their fellow Jays 8-2 as they advanced to the finals. In what turned out to be an exciting finale, the sophomore duo won the doubles tournament over Bryce Beisswanger and Yuvraj Kumar of Carnegie Mellon University. With the win, Buxbaum and Walsh punched themselves a ticket to the 2014 USTA/ITA National Small College Championship in Sumter, S.C. while earning themselves All-American honors in the process.
“Mike [Buxbaum] and I have been playing tremendous doubles together,” Walsh said. “I believe that we’re mentally and physically prepared to perform well at the national tournament this year after struggling in the opening round of last year’s match. I have confidence in our game heading into the tournament in South Carolina.”
Outside of the championship bracket, the Jays showed tremendous depth by dominating the Blue 1 and 2 singles draws. Reiter began his championship run with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Peter Riley of Grove City College. He then went on to win the rest of his qualifying matches before winning the finale 6-2, 6-1 over Connor O’Kelly of Carnegie Mellon. Kang also had an outstanding run in the tournament as he breezed through the tournament without so much as losing a set through the entire draw. Kang would eventually win the title 6-0, 6-2 over Max Katcher of Christopher Newport University.
This tournament marks the closing stages of the men’s fall season as the Jays send Buxbaum and Walsh to represent Hopkins at the Small College Championship in S.C. Oct. 9-12. The two dominant stars will be sorely missed as the rest of the squad prepares to face off against Amherst College on Oct. 11. The match is set to start at 11 a.m. and marks the first home match of the year for the Blue Jays.
