Dartmouth's men's tennis entered Friday's match against Williams undefeated at home, having won on six occasions since the beginning of 2006. The team had won the previous day against Division III powerhouse Middlebury to preserve its perfect record, but on short rest Williams proved too strong for the Big Green.
After a 4-3 defeat, Dartmouth fell to 8-9 on the season.
"Middlebury and Williams are both good teams, and it's always nice to beat them," Rashaad Elder-Bush '06 said. "It's tough to play matches on consecutive days, and I think that showed a little bit in our loss to Williams on Friday."
On Thursday evening, the team won convincingly against Middlebury at the Boss Tennis Center, 5-2. The victory over the No. 4 team in Division III was Dartmouth's eighth of the season, equaling its record from 2004-05 when it finished the season at 8-14.
Dartmouth started the Middlebury match strongly by winning two of three doubles matches. David Waslen '07 and classmate Steven McGaughey '07 won at No. 1 against Ari Beilin and Alex Scott, 9-7. Raj Shrestha '06 and Ari Gayer '09 had no problem at No. 2, easily overcoming the challenge of Nathan Edmunds and Kevin Bergesen, 8-2.
The only Dartmouth loss came at No. 3. The performance of Elder-Bush and Jeffrey Schechtman '08 was a rare ray of light during Dartmouth's California trip at the end of March, where they won four of their five matches in the team's five consecutive losses. However, they were out of sync on Thursday and lost 8-3 to Brian Waldron and George Mayer.
Dartmouth grabbed a 3-0 lead after McGaughey and Shrestha won their matches at No. 5 and No. 3 singles, respectively. McGaughey won 7-5, 6-1 against Mayer, while Shrestha gave Edmunds only four games, 6-2, 6-2. Schechtman and Gayer won the other two singles points for Dartmouth with wins over Ari Beilin and Conrad Olson at No. 2 and No. 4, respectively.
Dartmouth's No. 1 seed David Waslen lost to Brian Waldron in a very close encounter as Middlebury earned one of their two points. Waldron took the lead after taking the first set 7-6, but Waslen came back after a 6-3 win in the second set before losing narrowly, 7-5, in the third and decisive one. At No. 6, Alex Scott defeated Elder-Bush in two sets to settle the final score of the match at 5-2 Dartmouth.
Friday's match against Williams was affected by unexpectedly warm weather, as action started with the singles games on the outside courts. Williams took the initiative and a 2-0 lead with wins at Nos. 1 and 2.
Daniel Greenberg overcame the resistance of Waslen with 6-4 wins in both sets, while Scott MacKenzie gave Jeff Schechtman no chance, defeating him 6-1, 6-1. Dartmouth pulled one back as Ari Gayer won his match over Gary Simonette 6-4, 6-2 at No. 4. Williams restored its two-point lead as Ted Haley defeated McGaughey in a three-set thriller at No. 5, 3-6, 6-2, 6-1.
Under these circumstances, Dartmouth seniors Shrestha and Elder-Bush both needed to win their matches at No. 3 and No. 6, respectively, to keep the game alive. Shrestha started convincingly, dominating in the first set to win 6-1. However, he lost the second set 6-7, after winning only a point in the tie-breaker, before coming back to win the third set 6-1 and earning the second point for Dartmouth.
At No. 6, Elder-Bush and Bryan Monier were very evenly matched, as the Williams player needed a tiebreaker to win the first set 7-6, but Elder-Bush came back and won the second set 6-2. In the third, it once again came down to a tiebreaker, and the Dartmouth player was again unlucky, losing it 7-4 and handing Williams the decisive fourth point.
Dartmouth dominated the doubles matches, which were played inside the Boss Tennis Center and Gordon pavilion, winning a consolatory third point and finalizing the 4-3 scoreline.
Waslen and McGaughey defeated MacKenzie and Simonette 8-5 at No. 1, while Shrestha and Gayer topped Greenberg and Haley 8-2. At No. 2, Elder-Bush and Schechtman once again could not reproduce their California performance, losing 9-8 to Kivitz and Thacher.
Dartmouth kicks off its Ivy League season with two New York matches next weekend, as it faces Columbia on Friday and Cornell Saturday. The team will look to improve on last season's results, when the Big Green lost all seven of its league matches. For the Dartmouth players, however, the new season has brought about a new sense of optimism.
"I have a lot of confidence in myself and in my teammates going into this season," Elder-Bush said. "I know that if guys perform as well as I've seen them and really bring their best to the table, we will do very well against the other Ivies."
Dartmouth took a single point in its encounter with Columbia last season, losing all singles matches and winning the doubles point. Against Cornell, Dartmouth lost 5-2, as David Webb '05 and Waslen won the two points for the team in singles play.
