This past Saturday, the men’s tennis team competed against Wesleyan University, earning a big 7-2 league victory. Coming into the weekend, the Mules were 9-3 overall this year, but had yet to record a win against another New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) team. According to Jason Ottomano ’14, “We had a good spring break, but then lost to Trinity [College] in Connecticut last weekend, so I think we were all looking forward to righting the ship this weekend.”

In the doubles matches, Colby defeated Wesleyan 2-1, winning the first and third matches but losing the second. Ottomano and Kimball defeated Kleckner and Seifer by a healthy margin of 8-3. “Kimball came out strong at first doubles,” Ottomano said about their match. “After we secured a couple breaks of serve, we were able to play sharp and keep the momentum going our way.” Robert Yee ’12 and Martin lost a close match to Hudson and Suh, 9-8. At the third spot, Bryant and Mantikas won another close match, also by a score of 9-8.

At the first singles spot, Tom Kimball ’12 lost to Stephen Monk in three sets, 6-3, 3-6, 6-10. The rest of the team avenged his loss, however, with the other five singles matches going to Colby. At the second spot, Ottomano won easily in two sets, defeating Ben Hudson 6-1, 6-2, as did Jack Bryant ’14, who defeated Donovan Suh 6-2, 6-2 at third singles. Sam Bachelder ’14 had a close first set against Donald Kleckner, but pulled it out with a score of 7-5 and sealed the match with a 6-2 victory in the second set. At the fifth spot, Matthew Mantikas ’13 defeated Charlie Seifer by a score of 6-3 in both sets, and at the sixth Luke Martin ’14 defeated Michael Glen in a super tie-breaker third set, 6-3, 4-6, 10-5.

The Mules played very well despite low temperatures and even some snow flurries during the competition. Ottomano says that this actually worked in their favor, as the men “had been practicing in similar weather all week, and we knew how to handle it. I definitely think it gave us an edge, and it was a smart decision by Coach [Doanh] Wang to keep the match outside as scheduled, despite the cold weather.” This win gives the men their first NESCAC win of the year and moves them to a record of 10-3 overall and 6-3 this spring.

Next week, the Mules will face another NESCAC opponent, as they travel to Massachusetts to compete against Amherst College, the top-ranked team in the country and the defending national champion.