The Justice

Media Credit: Julian Agin-Liebes Simon Miller '11 prepares to serve during his doubles match against Tufts University last Friday. Miller's singles win gave the Judges a 5-4 victory.

Coach Ben Lamanna's annual return to his alma mater of Bates College last Saturday afternoon ended with mixed results.

The women's team dropped just one set in routing the Bobcats 9-0, but the Bobcats returned the favor on the men's side, sweeping the Judges 9-0 while not surrendering a single set. The men's team's loss, which occurred after 5-4 home win over Tufts University last Friday, moved its record to 2-2 this season, while the women's team is now 2-1.

"The women played awesome," Lamanna said. "It was one of our better matches of the year."

Doubles proved to be instrumental in the women's team's victories, as each of the Judges' three pairs was able to start the match off with wins.

Jen Levine '08 and Ariana Sanai '10 defeated sophomores Jean Gulliver and Caroline Gottlieb 8-3 in No. 3 doubles, while Gabrielle Helfgott '09 and Mackenzie Gallegos '11 topped the senior duo of Mallika Raghavan and Liz Fleming 8-4 at No. 2 doubles.

"We played really nicely," Helfgott said. "We're working on playing aggressively against every doubles team we play because that's what makes a good doubles team: who can get control at the net first. We just stayed aggressive and played solidly."

At No. 1 doubles, Rachel Rosman '11 and Colleen Donnelly '08 struggled early, losing four of the first five games to Bates' duo of sophomore Alex Piacquad and junior Caryn Benisch, but rallied to win the deciding tiebreaker 7-3 and the match 9-8.

In singles, Rosman and Donnelly each won their matches against Piacquad and Benisch at No. 1 and No. 2 singles, respectively, while Helfgott beat Raghavan 10-5 in a third-set super-tiebreaker after the opponents split the first two sets.

Helfgott, who was familiar with Raghavan, having played her three times in her college career before last Saturday, said she needed extra motivation to win. Helfgott felt one of her shots during a key point in the second set dropped in, but Raghavan called it out, which played a significant role in Helfgott dropping the second set. Lamanna talked to Helfgott before the super-tiebreaker, and she took his words to heart.

Continued...

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