Coach Ben Lamanna's annual return to his alma mater of Bates College last Saturday afternoon ended with mixed results.The women's team dropped just one set in routing the Bobcats 9-0, but the Bobcats returned the favor on the men's side, sweeping the Judges 9-0 while not surrendering a single set. The men's team's loss, which occurred after 5-4 home win over Tufts University last Friday, moved its record to 2-2 this season, while the women's team is now 2-1.

"The women played awesome," Lamanna said. "It was one of our better matches of the year."

Doubles proved to be instrumental in the women's team's victories, as each of the Judges' three pairs was able to start the match off with wins.

Jen Levine '08 and Ariana Sanai '10 defeated sophomores Jean Gulliver and Caroline Gottlieb 8-3 in No. 3 doubles, while Gabrielle Helfgott '09 and Mackenzie Gallegos '11 topped the senior duo of Mallika Raghavan and Liz Fleming 8-4 at No. 2 doubles.

"We played really nicely," Helfgott said. "We're working on playing aggressively against every doubles team we play because that's what makes a good doubles team: who can get control at the net first. We just stayed aggressive and played solidly."

At No. 1 doubles, Rachel Rosman '11 and Colleen Donnelly '08 struggled early, losing four of the first five games to Bates' duo of sophomore Alex Piacquad and junior Caryn Benisch, but rallied to win the deciding tiebreaker 7-3 and the match 9-8.

In singles, Rosman and Donnelly each won their matches against Piacquad and Benisch at No. 1 and No. 2 singles, respectively, while Helfgott beat Raghavan 10-5 in a third-set super-tiebreaker after the opponents split the first two sets.

Helfgott, who was familiar with Raghavan, having played her three times in her college career before last Saturday, said she needed extra motivation to win. Helfgott felt one of her shots during a key point in the second set dropped in, but Raghavan called it out, which played a significant role in Helfgott dropping the second set. Lamanna talked to Helfgott before the super-tiebreaker, and she took his words to heart.

"[Lamanna] used [the conflict] to motivate me to win the super-tiebreaker." she said. "He kind of made me angry about it, and I channeled that into the end of the match."

The men's team could have lessened the blow of the 9-0 defeat had they been able to finish key points in doubles.

The No. 2 doubles team of Steven Nieman '11 and Dor Almog '11 and the No. 3 pairing of David Silver '11 and Seth Rogers '10 each lost 8-5. It took a tiebreaker for the No. 1 duo of Simon Miller '11 and captain Scott Schulman '09 to fall at No. 1 doubles to the Bates squad of junior Ben Stein '09 and sophomore Amrit Rupasinghe '10, the eighth-ranked pair in Division III and second-ranked tandem in the New England region.

"We had a tiebreaker in [No. 1] doubles against the second-best pair in the region, we were right there the whole way." Lamanna said. "Bates is a good team, and once you get behind them in doubles it's hard to come back."

In singles, the closest match came at No. 3 singles, where Schulman fell to sophomore Michael Reiss 6-3, 6-4.

The Judges picked up a tough victory the day before, defeating Tufts University 5-4 in dramatic fashion. Brandeis jumped out to a 3-0 lead after doubles play, but took just one of the first five singles matches to finish, leaving Miller's match at No. 1 singles against senior William Fleder as the deciding factor.

After splitting the first two sets with Fleder, Miller was down 6-5 in the third set but held off two match points with consecutive aces to force the third set tiebreaker. Once again, Miller had to rally, winning the tiebreaker 9-7 after breaking three more match points.

"You just have to focus on one point at a time; you can't focus on being down." Miller said. "Just play one point at a time; each one is big. I didn't think about what I had to overcome I just thought about winning each point."

Both teams play Babson College this weekend, with the women at home March 25 and the men on the road March 26.