Facing three match points against them, Sam Jonas '07 and his partner Mike Vulfovich '07 had their backs to the wall during the No.1 doubles contest of the men's tennis team's home match against Bates College Sunday. All the Bobcat duo of freshman Max Berger and sophomore Ben Stein needed to do was win one more point on Jonas' serve, and their team would have taken a crucial 2-1 lead on the Judges coming into the singles matches. Instead, Jonas and Vulfovich rallied to win the next five points and the subsequent tiebreaker, winning their match 9-8 (4), as the Judges defeated No. 24 Bates 6-3 for their first win over the Bobcats since 1999. Jordan Bieber '07 came back from a set down in No. 4 singles to deliver the clinching win.

The women's team, led by a resurgent doubles effort, also defeated the Bobcats 6-3 to end a five-match losing streak since the fall season. Both teams are now 3-5 on the year, including the fall season.

"We have a huge home-court advantage," said coach Ben Lamanna, who played at Bates College as an undergraduate. "Today, we used it really well, and we didn't let [Bates] get comfortable."

With Jonas and Vulfovich trailing 8-7 in their No. 1 doubles match, Vulfovich overhit an easy volley and Jonas followed with a missed volley into the net to fall down by 0-40 in the game.

"[The match] was even the entire way, and all of a sudden, we play two stupid points, and the match is almost over," Jonas said.

But after two service winners, Vulfovich and Jonas each came up with volley stabs, while Jonas put away a volley to force deuce. After another service winner, Jonas saved a potential passing shot and Vulfovich put away a floating forehand volley to win the game.

The teams split the first eight points of the subsequent tiebreaker before Jonas returned a serve crosscourt with his backhand, forcing a Bobcat error. Jonas then put away a left-handed volley, and Vulfovich's next serve clinched the victory.

"We spent too much time letting them take the match to us, and we almost paid the price for that," Vulfovich said.

Jonas and Vulfovich's victory put the Judges ahead 2-1, and both players followed with singles victories. Vulfovich, playing No. 1 singles for the second consecutive week, defeated Bobcat freshman Amrit Rupasinghe 6-4, 6-2, and Jonas defeated Bobcat freshman Mike Reiss 6-1, 6-3 at No. 2 singles. But Stein kept the Bobcats alive with a 6-4, 7-6 (4) victory over Adam Sher '07, putting the Judges' fate in Bieber's hands at No. 4 singles against Berger.

The first set did not go well for Bieber, as he was broken in his first service game, losing that set 6-2. But much like Jonas and Vulfovich did earlier, Bieber rallied back, sweeping Berger 6-0 in the second set and winning 6-3 in the third.

The women also used an early advantage in doubles to pull away for their victory. Lamanna switched the positions of the Judges' three pairings after the doubles teams lost all six of their matches in last weekend's defeats against Middlebury College and New York University. The switch paid off, as Ana Katz '08 and Jenicka Hornung '07 won at No. 2 doubles, while rookies Ariana Sanai '10 and Rachael Barr '10 were victorious at No. 3 doubles.

"Some of the matches were up and down, but I thought we all fought really well," Colleen Donnelly '08 said.

Donnelly and Gabrielle Helfgott '09 were unable to win at No. 1 doubles but rebounded with key singles victories. Donnelly defeated Bobcat sophomore Caryn Benisch 6-1, 2-6, 6-0 at No. 1 singles, while Helfgott rallied to win the clinching match against junior Mallika Raghavan 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 at No. 3 singles.

"[Raghavan] played pretty passively, so you need to expect [that] you'll have long rallies," Helfgott said.

The men's team plays two road games next week, first against Wheaton College Tuesday at 4 p.m. and against Tufts University Sunday at 2:30 p.m., while the women are off until a match next Tuesday against Babson College at 3 p.m.