Amherst Rolls the A-South: A Weekend in Review

What a great weekend! I slept late, ate poorly, got sporadic results from the Bates Invitational (more on that tomorrow), and took D3AS down from his Fantasy Football pedestal (Kendall Wright…lol). But perhaps most importantly, the Amherst Jeffs reminded the rest of the country just who the defending national champions are. Amherst, who the writers deemed worthy of the #6 spot in our power rankings, traveled to the heart of the A-South, and came out with two instant classic 5-4 wins! The Jeff took down #5 Hopkins and #8 Carnegie Mellon, coming back to win both matches in thrilling style. Here are the scores, courtesy of the Amherst website, and mini recaps from the weekend matches, courtesy of your favorite NE Division III tennis blogger:

Amherst 5, Johns Hopkins 4

1. Mike Buxbaum (JHUM) def. Michael Solimano (AMHM) 6-4, 6-1
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2. Aaron Revzin (AMHM) def. Ben Hwang (JHUM) 7-5, 6-1
3.  Andrew Yaraghi (AMHM) def. Tanner Brown (JHUM) 7-6 (7-2), 6-2
4. Noah Joachim (JHUM) def. Russell Einbinder (AMHM) 6-4, 6-4
5. Jeremy Dubin (JHUM) def. Andrew Scheiner (AMHM) 6-2, 6-1
6. Andrew Arnaboldi (AMHM) def. Emerson Walsh (JHUM) 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 6-3

1D) Mike Buxbaum/Emerson Walsh (JHUM) def. Aaron Revzin/Andrew Scheiner (AMHM) 8-6

2D) Russell Einbinder/Michael Solimano (AMHM) def. Nicholas Garcia/Noah Joachim (JHUM) 8-4

3D) Andrew Arnaboldi/Andrew Yaraghi (AMHM) def. Tanner Brown/Justin Kang (JHUM) 8-3

Order of finish: Doubles (3,2,1); Singles (1,5,2,3,4,6) T-4:00

First things first, a round of applause for Daddy WarBux. The Hopkins sophomore came straight from #SmallCollegeNationals and earned two points for the Jays and put a hurt on Solimano. I saw #1 as a toss-up match, but gave Solimano the edge due to freshness…my bad. Revzin and Yaraghi bouncing back from mediocre ITA performances is a great sign for the Jeffs. When D3AS and I were discussing this matchup, we both thought Hopkins would be favored at 4&5, seeing as Einbinder and Scheiner were not starters last year, but we differed on #6. Walsh is a very talented player, but all of his experience last year came on the doubles side of things. Arnaboldi (who is the younger brother of Brenton Arnaboldi, famous bracketologist and avid blog reader) played some #6 last year, and took down the #6’s from MIT, Whittier, Santa Cruz, and Skidmore. Arnaboldi’s experience came up big for him, fighting back from a set down to end up winning #6 and winning the all-important 5^th point for the Jeffs. If Amherst has a weakness this year, it’s the bottom of their lineup (for the first time ever), so the win at #6 was especially encouraging for Coach Doebler and the Jeffs.

Amherst 5, Carnegie Mellon University 4

1. Michael Solimano (AMHM) def. Abhishek Alla (CMUM) 6-3, 6-3
2. Aaron Revzin (AMHM) def. Will Duncan (CMUM) 6-7 (1-7), 6-2, 6-1
3. Andrew Yaraghi (AMHM) def. Kiril Kirkov (CMUM) 6-0, 7-6 (9-7)
4. Kenny Zheng (CMUM) def. Russell Einbinder (AMHM) 6-3, 6-3
5. Kunal Wadwani (CMUM) def. Andrew Scheiner (AMHM) 1-6, 6-1, 7-5
6. Andrew Arnaboldi (AMHM) def. Edward Ang (CMUM) 6-1, 6-2

1D) Bryce Beisswanger/Yuvraj Kumar (CMUM) def. Aaron Revzin/Andrew Scheiner (AMHM) 8-5

2D). Will Duncan/Jack Kasbeer (CMUM) def. Russell Einbinder/Michael Solimano (AMHM) 8-4

3D). Andrew Arnaboldi/Andrew Yaraghi (AMHM) def. Kiril Kirkov/Kunal Wadwani (CMUM) 8-2

Order of finish: Doubles (3,2,1); Singles (1,6,3,4,2,5)

I predicted the Jeffs to beat Hopkins, 5-4, by winning #2/3 dubs, and #’s 1/3/6 singles. Pretty impressive if I do say so myself. However, as much as I wanted to, I wasn’t sure if I could pick the Jeffs to do it again the next day. They had to travel after beating Hopkins, they had the fatigue factor, CMU’s main strength (depth) was a Jeff’s question mark, and CMU had a new and improved doubles game. All signs pointed to a Tartan victory, until we found again (once again) that signs mean nothing. Personally, I disregard stop signs all the time, and don’t even get me started on relationship signs. All love-life troubles aside, CMU came out hot and took 2 doubles points (1&2). Make sure that sinks in, CMU TOOK 2 DOUBLES POINTS FROM AMHERST! Perhaps more shocking than the fact that the Tartans took 2/3 doubles points, is the fact that THEY LOST A 2-1 LEAD! The Tartans overcame doubles deficits last year to beat #21 Redlands, #14 Gustavus, #11Pomona, #15 Mary Washington, #34 Washington & Lee, and #8 Case Western, so the idea of a doubles lead against Amherst, a team known for doubles, should make Coach Girard giddy. Solimano bounced back in a big way for the Jeffs, taking down Alla in straight sets. The man of the match Sunday had to be Aaron Revzin, who came back from a tough 1^st set tiebreaker loss, to roll over Will Duncan and earn the 5^th point for the Jeffs. One important thing to note from this match, both teams were missing key players. CMU’s Christian Heaney-Secord is currently out for the fall, and Amherst’s Anton Zykov is still dealing with an ankle injury from ITAs.

As this is a NE article, I’m going to end with a spot by spot extreme overreaction run down of the Jeffs weekend.

1Dubs) Revzin/Scheiner: 0-2. Revzin is a monster doubles player, but I am somewhat surprised he’s not playing with Solimano. This team played close against two of the A-South’s top teams, but they will need to step up their play if they are to turn those close losses into wins.

2Dubs) Einbinder/Solimano: 1-1. This should be a heck of a #2 team. Everyone knows I believe Solimano to be a top doubles player in the country, which makes the CMU double break win all the more impressive. We’ll see where Zykov (and maybe Fife) fit back into the doubles, but my overreaction says something should be swapped around within these top doubles teams.

3Dubs) Arnaboldi/Yaraghi: 2-0. Pretty sweet weekend for the Jeff’s #3 team. A total of 5 games against Not much more needs to be said here. Nice combination!

1) Solimano: 1-1. Solly-Pop split his matches this weekend, against some of the best competition in the country. However, the former #3 will have to get use to opponents of this caliber. In order for Amherst to make a title defending run, Solimano will have to provide two points in the majority of his matches.

2) Revzin: 2-0. Aaron was a revelation this weekend. I was hard on him both before and after the ITA’s, but consecutive wins over Hwang and Duncan show that Revzin isn’t ready to rescind his spot towards the top of the Jeff’s lineup. Even when Zykov returns, there is no guarantee he will play above Revzin.

3) Yaraghi: 2-0. Like Revzin, Yaraghi went undefeated over the weekend. But unlike Aaron, Andrew won all 4 matches. The Jeff’s player of the weekend was basically a lock at #5 last year, but has the ability to win the majority of his matches anywhere in the lineup. If Yaraghi is beating guys like Tanner Brown and Kiril Kirkov in straight sets, Jeff fans can count on him for steady points at #4.

4) Einbinder: 0-2. Russell had a rough weekend, going 1-3 in total. With all due respect to Russ, this is the biggest drop in the Jeffs lineup. Einbinder has always been more of a doubles player, but has had plenty of experience in the Jeff’s lineup (albeit as a member of the A, B, and C teams). I think Einbinder will be a far more competitive #5, and possibly a very solid #6 if Fife stays healthy and motivated.

5) Scheiner: 0-2. Andrew is another guy with some match experience over the past few years, but seemed a little outmatched this weekend. To be fair, Dubin should be one of the best #5’s in the country, and Wadwani should be right behind him. Scheiner showed some flashes of brilliance, taking a quick first set from Wadwani and fighting to extend the 3^rd set, but it’s unfair to try and compare him to Yaraghi at #5 last year. Like Russell, Andrew is a guy who can definitely contribute to this team in the spring, and will likely be fighting for the #6 spot.

6) Arnaboldi: 2-0. Arnaboldi was the most pleasant surprise of the weekend, sweeping his singles matches, and clinching the Hopkins match for the Jeffs. I would bet that he now has a leg up over Scheiner for that 6^th spot (when Zykov returns), but considering that Amherst will have multiple options to throw in at #6, we could easily see a revolving door situation. For now, the spot belongs to Lil Arnaboldi, who, like Yaraghi, went a perfect 4-0 on the weekend.