This past week, the Colby men’s tennis team competed against three other New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) teams: Bates College, Hamilton College and Connecticut College.

On Wednesday, April 18, they faced Bates, who is currently ranked 15th in the country, and lost 8-1. Bates swept the doubles matches. Matt Bettles and Rob Crampton defeated Tom Kimball ’12 and Jason Ottomano ’14 by a score of 8-1 at first doubles. At second doubles, Robert Yee ’12 and Sam Bachelder ’14 lost to Tim Berg and Pierre Planche, 8-2, and at third doubles the team of Jack Bryant ’14 and Luke Martin ’14 lost a close match to Kyle DeSisto and Peter Yanofsky 9-8. In the singles competition, Kimball, Ottomano and Bryant lost to Berg, Bettles and Crampton, respectively, all in straight sets. However, Bachelder was able to notch a victory for the Mules at the fourth spot by defeating Jeff Beaton in a third set super-tiebreaker, 5-7, 6-1, 14-12. At the fifth spot, Matthew Mantikas ’13 lost to Planche in two sets, 6-4, 6-2, and at the sixth spot, Martin was able to take DeSisto to third set super-breaker but ultimately lost with a score of 4-6, 6-2, 10-7.

Despite these disappointing results, the Mules were determined to prove themselves in their match against Hamilton on Saturday, April 21, doing so with a convincing 9-0 victory. At first doubles, Ottomano and Kimball had a close battle but ended up defeating Coby Berman and Jordan Petit, 9-7. Yee and Martin defeated Andrew Libin and Ben Swett 8-5 at second doubles, and Bryant and Bachelder easily took down Buck Reynolds and Matthew Billet, 8-2, at third doubles.

The Mules swept the singles competition as well, with every player winning in straight sets. At the first spot, Kimball defeated Libin 6-4, 6-4; Ottomano defeated Petit 6-0, 6-3 at second singles, and Bryant defeated Berman 6-3, 6-2 at third. At fourth singles, Bachelder easily defeated Billet 6-2, 6-1, and at fifth singles Mantikas won over Swett, 7-5, 6-1. Finally, at sixth singles, Martin won the first set 6-2 over Kolya Kerz, and was able to win a close second set 7-5. All in all, the Mules had a nearly perfect day, winning every match without so much as dropping a set.

The Mules weren’t done yet though, as the next day they would compete against Connecticut College in their final home match of the season. The men proved that their 9-0 victory the day before was no fluke as they defeated the Camels 7-2. At first doubles, Kimball and Ottomano defeated George King and John Cangelosi 8-4, and at third doubles Bryant and Bachelder won 8-1 over Mike DeCorato and Joshua Suneby. However, at second doubles, Yee and Martin lost to Jeff Weisberger and Jeremy Bader, 8-4. In the singles matches, Kimball, Bachelder and Mantikas defeated Weisberger, King, and Tucker respectively, all in straight sets. At second singles, Ottomano lost a close first set 7-6 to Suneby before taking the next two. At the third spot, Bryant lost a close match to Cangelosi in three sets, 6-3, 4-6, 11-9. Finally, at sixth singles, Than Moore ’12 won his final home match over Bader. He dropped the first set 1-6, but rallied to win the next two 6-4 and 10-4 to take the match.

These results bring Colby’s record to a 12-5 overall and 3-3 in NESCAC competition. They will have two more chances to improve this record next weekend as they take on Bowdoin College and Tufts University in their final matches of the season.