Though the Brandeis women's tennis team has had quite a number of strong performances throughout the season, notching wins against MIT and NYU with identical scores of 7-2, they continued to struggle to maintain a winning streak once again with their recent losses to Trinity College (4-5) and Bentley College (3-6).The strong wins against MIT and NYU were "quite an accomplishment and definitely a very good team victory," Head Coach Rocky Jarvis said. In the NYU match, added Jarvis, "we won five out of six of our singles matches and two out of our three doubles matches."

The Judges defeated MIT in all the singles matches except Abby Lerner's '04 loss to MIT's Shima Rayej 5-7, 0-6 and Katie Albert's '04 loss to MIT's Jenn Hipp 2-6, 1-6. But Brandeis cleanly swept the doubles section with victories all the way through.

Of course the team still had their dose of difficulty to overcome. Due to sickness and injury, the singles lineup suffered the loss of first singles player Jane Chae '05. Despite the loss, Judges Lerner, Jennifer Krueger '07, Shani Reich '06, Albert, Christine, Clancy '07 and Sara Zonenshine '07 quickly stepped up to the plate and contributed in major fashion.

In the singles bracket against MIT, Krueger stepped up and took out the Engineers' Caroline Tien with a score of 6-0, 6-2, while Reich defeated MIT's Jaclyn Ciccion 6-1, 7-5 and Wexler and Clancy followed in their footsteps with clutch wins of their own.

Against NYU, Lerner defeated Violet Michelle Dest 6-4, 6-4, while Reich topped NYU's Megan Hayes 6-3, 6-3. Krueger proved once again that though new to the team, she can compete - she squashed NYU's Jen Sussman as the Judges at second singles with a score of 6-1, 7-5. In the fourth singles slot, Albert dominated with a 6-2, 6-0 win. Moreover, proving that Brandeis has a significant degree of depth, Clancy defeated NYU's Carol Young 6-4, 2-6, 6-3.

Chae discussed how the lineup was shuffled. "Many of the singles girls were moved up a rank," she said. "But they stepped up and played some excellent tennis."

On Oct. 5,, the Judges were in high spirits from their recent victories over MIT and NYU, and appeared to be fully prepared to tackle Trinity College and come out triumphant. "Trinity is a tough team that deserves much credit," said Reich. "They made the same mistake they made in the season-opener against Connecticut College: underestimation."

The Judges were defeated by Trinity, said Chae, because Brandeis "underestimated them because they had recently lost to Connecticut College who we had defeated 5-4 early in the season."

Chae and Lerner, Jarvis' first doubles tandem, took a hard hit from Trinity. Chae, still struggling with her illness, was defeated by Trinity's Diana Goldman 4-6, 3-6. Trinity's Diana Dreyfus defeated Lerner 6-3, 6-1. Furthermore, Chae and Lerner had much difficulty with Trinity's No. 1 doubles team, Goldman and Fickman, losing to them 8-5.

A disappointed Reich described the emotional letdown of the match. "It was a very upsetting day for me personally," she said. "Because although I won doubles with my partner Ora, I ended up losing the singles match that served as the decisive factor of the result. We were tied four-all and my match would decide whether our ream was to be victorious that day or not, and I lost."

On the positive side, despite being a newcomer, Krueger seems to be discovering her winning ways. She competed brilliantly once again and came out with a win against Katie Ficken 1-6, 6-2. 6-4 in the singles and further displayed her skills playing doubles with partner Clancy to defeat Dreyfus and Olwine 9-7.

Trinity served not only as stiff competition, but also as a clear indication of the team's continuing improvement. "Although we lost, I could see that our play was a lot better in comparison to the previous year," said Reich. "For example, last year I was crushed by the same girl I actually competed up to three sets against this year. I could see that they had more respect for us as team this year."

Two days after their loss to Trinity College, the Judges went head to head with Bentley College with a big disadvantage, as Jarvis' crew was without the services of Chae, Ora Wexler '04, Krueger, and Reich ("because of classes and it was the day after Yom Kippur," explained Chae.) Hence, Albert, Clancy, Zonenshine, Akman and Ariele Schmidt '07 had some major shoes to fill. While they performed with much intensity and courage, moving up not just one, but up to three ranks was too big of a sudden jump.

Despite the singles losses of Albert (1-6, 1-6), Zonenshine (1-6, 1-6,) Akman (3-6, 3-6), and Schmidt (7-6, 0-6, 7-10), Lerner and Clancy managed to pull through. Lerner defeated Kristin Makwoski by a whopping 6-2, 6-1 score, while Clancy gutted it out at third singles to defeat Aimee Cavanaugh 6-3, 7-5.

In the doubles, however, Lerner and Clancy suffered an 8-5 loss when partnered against Makwoski and Michelle Robatt. Albert and Zoneneshine, regardless of such a drastic change in rank ,performed impressively, defeating Cavanaugh and Emily Pollak in a very close 9-8 triumpth.

Fortunately, the loss to Bentley College will not have as big of an impact as the team's loss to Trinity College, "because Bentley's team is in a different division than we are, it won't affect our rankings," said Chaie . "We're Division III, and they're Division II."

The Judges appear to have been on a roller-coaster ride for most of their season, but they remain optimistic. "This season shows a lot, for the past four games show that we can crush the teams at the same level as us, and though we're not quite at the level as some teams, the close scores indicated that we're so close to reaching that higher level of better tennis," Reich said.