Waltham, Mass. - The visiting Trinity College Bantams fell to the Brandeis University Judges, 5-4, in men's tennis action this afternoon on the Rieger Tennis Courts. The Bantams fall to 7-4 and see a four-match winning streak snapped. The Judges improved to 9-5 with their first-ever win over Trinity in 10 meetings.
Trinity jumped out to a 2-1 lead after doubles action. Juniors Dan Carpenter (Wayzata, Minn.)and David Myers (Winnetka, Ill.) rolled at No. 1, 8-2, while junior Ilya Levin (Wellesley, Mass.) and first-year Rutendo Matingo (Weston, Mass.) earned an 8-4 win at No. 3. Brandeis got on the board at the second spot, where rookie Brian Granoff and junior Michael Secular earned a late service break for an 8-5 win.
In singles action, the Bantams extended their lead to 3-1 when sophomore Ford Traff (Wayzata, Minn.) knocked off Brandeis junior Alec Siegel at No. 5, 6-1, 7-5. Traff erased a 4-1 deficit in the second set. Brandeis got on the board again at first singles, where Granoff , upset Carpenter, 6-2, 6-3. Brandeis tied the match at fourth singles, where rookie Ryan Bunis topped Musyoka Mbithi (Orange, N.J.), 6-2, 6-4, in the final straight-set win of the day.
The Judges took the lead and won the match with a pair of three-setters. At No. 6, Secular won the first set from Levin, 6-4. Levin knotted it up in the second, 6-3. With two early breaks, Secular jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the third set, but Levin rallied to win the next three in a row with a pair of service breaks of his own. Secular recorded his third break of the set in the eighth game and held in the ninth to complete a 6-3 win for Brandeis's fourth set.
Moments later, sophomore Danny Lubarsky clinched the win from the third position on the ladder. Lubarsky split the first two sets with Matingo, 6-4, 2-6. In the third, the pair traded holds in the first six games of the set before Lubarsky won three in a row, breaking Matingo in the eighth game to complete the comeback victory for his team with a 6-3 final set.
In the final match of the day, Trinity junior Ned Mandel overcame an early deficit in the second set to defeat Brandeis rookie Michael Arguello, 4-6, 7-6, 10-6. The score of the second-set tiebreaker was 8-6, and the third set was a 10-point pro set.
results
