On Saturday, March 29, the Brandeis University men's tennis team sent the U.S. Coast Guard Academy (New London, Conn.) out to sea with a convincing 5-2 road win. In singles play, Tomas Wallenberg '05 played in the first spot and fell to a determined Scott Karljan of Coast Guard 3-6, 2-6. Ultimately, though, Karljan's win was the exception to the rule, as Brandeis captured all five of its remaining singles matches.

Captain Dave Block '03 showed that when it comes to tennis, upperclassmen make great role models. He won his singles match quickly 6-3, 6-3. In the third spot, Alan Berk '05 played in what would be the most tightly contested match of the day and won in three grueling sets (6-7, 6-3, 6-2).

"Alan Berk has been playing spectacularly brave tennis," said Head Coach Rocky Jarvis. "He can barely practice because of a shoulder injury, but he played a very good match against Coast Guard."

Chris Hersel '06 and Hart Comess-Daniels '06 both put forth strong efforts in the fourth and fifth singles slots, repectively. While Hersel won his match 6-2, 6-2, Comess-Daniels breezed by Cheryl Hickey 6-2, 6-3. Not to be forgotten in the number six slot, Seth Green '05 finished up with a 6-2 6-3 win.

"Seth Green's win won the match for us," added Jarvis, "Seth, Alan, Chris, they all played very good matches to win."

In doubles, the senior/freshman tandem of Block and Hersel won 8-6 against the Bears' Karjlan and Matt Nakasawa. The men's tennis team's only other loss of the day came when the team of Wallenberg and Comess-Daniels lost a tough 4-8 decision at second doubles. The Judges had to default on a third doubles match due to lack of players.

Thursday, the Judges go up against Wheaton College at home. "We've got three matches next weekend and a match on Monday," said Jarvis, "The Saturday match is an interesting one against Drew University (Madison, NJ). They're ranked about tenth in their area which is about where we're ranked in ours."

Last Thursday, Brandeis triumphed easily against the California Institue of Technology, 6-1.

"That was a nice rest and it helped us get organized," said Jarvis. The match gave the squad some much-needed confidence after the Judges suffered a lopsided loss at the hands of local rival Tufts University (the NESCAC school won 7-0).

While the final score would indicate that the Jumbos dominated the match, Brandeis managed to stay competitive throughout. At third singles, Berk played an extremely tight match, going into a third set super tiebreaker with Tufts' Danny Lang before losing 6-7, 6-4 (13-15). Fourth singles player, Yehuda Hausman (GRAD) also went into a third set tiebreaker versus Tufts' Adam Yates.

"We've had a really nice run towards the UAA's (which begin on April 25 at Washington University)," remarked Jarvis, "We're pretty beat up, but I'm proud of Alan. He went for over a year without being healthy enough to play one singles match. But he's done really well this season.