While many Oberlin students were relaxing over break, the Oberlin College tennis teams were hard at work. The teams traveled to Hilton Head, S.C., to participate in their annual Spring Break tournament. The Yeomen played seven matches during the trip and came away with a 4-3 record, while the Yeowomen played six and racked up a 3-3 record.
The men were led by the play of junior captain Jamie Frankel, who went undefeated in singles competition. His victories over Jesse Young of the University of Sioux Falls, (7-6, 6-1) and Rand Horowitz of Westminister College (Mo.), (6-3, 6-3) were among his biggest wins of the season.
“I pulled out a great win against a good player,” Frankel said of his match against Young. “Horowitz was my tightest match on the trip. But I managed to pull it out because I didn’t fight myself during the end of the match.”
Frankel went on to pull out wins against Manchester College’s Tym Flory, Carleton College’s Mike Ottum, Carnegie Mellon University’s Steve Erlich, Centre College’s David Hise and Colby College’s John McManigal.
“I knew personally that if I wanted to obtain my goal in making nationals that I would have to win out,” Frankel said of his overall performance, “and that’s exactly what I did.”
Frankel’s teammates also had a successful spring break. The most notable highlights were victories over Carleton and Carnegie Mellon. Both games were tight, each ending in 4-3 scores.
“This was a breakthrough performance for our tennis program,” Frankel said about the match against Carleton. “They are ranked number 12 in our region and it was a great win.”
“The whole team raised their level of play,” sophomore Mark Knee, who pulled off singles wins in both matches, said. “They were both tough and it took some clutch performances to pull them out. They really brought us together as a team.”
Knee came away with a 5-2 singles record for the week.
“We played some of our best tennis in a long time on Spring Break,” sophomore Ananya Balaram said. “Mark, [junior] Marian [Bocek] and Jamie played some great matches against teams that were supposed to beat us like Carleton and Mellon.” Balaram picked up big wins in doubles action against Carnegie Mellon and Centre.
Bocek picked up many big wins himself, including a singles victory in the Mellon match.
“That match was the biggest win of my collegiate tennis career,” Bocek said. “I managed to come back from a 2-5 deficit in the third set, and thus secured the victory for the whole team. Seeing my teammates jumping all over the fence and celebrating one of our young team’s biggest victories will definitely remain one of my most memorable experiences while being at Oberlin College.”
Along with the wins over Carnegie Mellon and Carleton, the Yeomen took victories over Centre (6-1) and Manchester (6-1).
Other great play came from first-year David Cotter who picked up singles wins against Manchester, Carleton and Centre. Sophomores Brad White and Nick Ogren also racked up singles wins against Manchester.
The Yeowomen had a successful trip to South Carolina as well, pulling out wins in three of their six matches. By the end of the week the women’s squad had defeated Manchester, Sioux Falls and Centre.
The women were led by senior captain Alaina Fotiu-Wojtowicz, who came up big in her singles matches on the week. She finished the trip with a record of 5-1, which included impressive victories over Angie Norberg of Sioux Falls (6-2, 6-1) and Centre’s Tiffany Durall (7-6, 6-4).
“We definitely knew that we would be up against some tough competition,” junior Whitney Reichheld said. “But we really had very little knowledge of what to expect.” Reichheld also had success during the week as she earned wins in five of her six singles matches as well, including a hard-fought battle with Erskine College’s Radha Bharahi, (7-5, 7-5).
The Manchester match brought out the best play of week for many of the Yeowomen. Oberlin swept the singles bracket as the match ended in an 8-1 score.
Fotiu-Wojtowicz won 6-0, 6-4, while sophomore Ary Amerikaner won 7-6, 6-2. Sophomore Jessica Hauser had a decisive victory, 6-3, 6-3, Reichheld won 6-0, 6-3 and senior Laura Koehn came out on top 6-3, 6-0 in her match. Rounding out the singles victories was sophomore Melanie Merz with a 6-0, 6-0 win.
Oberlin took wins in two of the three doubles matches as well.
“Spring Break gave us an opportunity for some great play and a chance to bond as a team,” said Reichheld of the trip. “Tennis is such an individual sport that it’s nice to come together as a team and get to know one another a little better.”
The women didn’t have too much time off after their return to Oberlin. On April 1 they were right back at it, taking their game to Ohio Wesleyan University. In another impressive performance the Yeowomen earned the conference victory, 7-2.
The tandem of Fotiu-Wojtowicz and Amerikaner won at first doubles and the combination of Koehn and first-year Kate Lurain pulled out a tough win at third doubles.
“We went into the match expecting a solid team,” said Reichheld, “and with that in mind, played well.”
In singles action, Reichheld, Koehn and Merz worked toward decisive wins in the three bottom spots. At the top Fotiu-Wojtowicz pulled out a tight win and Hauser also made her presence felt with a victory at third singles.
“This was an important win for our status in the conference tournament,” said Reichheld.
These wins, along with three other victories over Walsh University (9-0), Ohio Dominican University (6-3) and Hiram College (5-0) earlier in the season give the Yeowomen a record of 10-4.