Behind 7-6 with their opponents serving for fifth place in the No. 2 doubles flight last Saturday at the Northeast Intercollegiate Tournament, men's tennis players Steven Nieman '11 and Mike Tatarsky '12 were running out of chances to win the match.But they broke Bucknell College's senior Daniel Bednarek and rookie Clark Bogle to tie the score and stay in the match. One hold and one more break later, Nieman and Tatarsky had closed out the match en route to a 9-7 win and a fifth-place finish out of the 16 teams in their bracket.

"[Coach Ben Lamanna] always tells us, 'A late show's a great show,'" Nieman said. "That's one of his major slogans, meaning that when the going gets tough, when people get tight, when it gets very, very close and late in the match, you have to be the one to really execute. We did that."

The men's team also defeated Bentley College 8-1 last Tuesday in its first match of the season. A day later, the women's team also defeated Bentley, winning 5-4.

Nieman and Tatarsky were one of two Brandeis doubles pairs to pull out a fifth-place finish at last weekend's tournament, which took place last Friday through Sunday at Brown University. Simon Miller '11 and captain Scott Schulman '09 also captured fifth place in the No. 1 doubles flight, defeating Brown juniors Nathaniel Gorham and rookie Andrew Yazmer 8-5 in the fifth-place match.

Lamanna praised his team's mental attitude against their Division I competition.

"I was really proud of the guys over the weekend, how they acted. In terms of dealing with the ups and downs and dealing with the adversity mentally, I thought we did a really good job," he said.

In singles, Nieman, Schulman, Tatarsky, and David Silver '11 all won their first-round matches before falling in the quarterfinal round. Nieman and Schulman both won the first sets of their quarterfinal matches in the No. 2 and No. 3 singles flights, respectively, before dropping the final two sets. Tatarsky fell in two sets in the No. 3 singles flight to Fairleigh Dickinson University sophomore Alex Jorne, while Silver lost in the No. 6 singles flight to FDU's rookie Stephan Muller.

In last Tuesday's win over Bentley, the men's team led 2-1 after doubles play before winning all six singles matches. Five out of the six Judges singles players won their matches in straight sets.

"We proved that we're a real good singles team, but doubles and depth makes a good overall team, so we're focusing now on [doubles] details," Lamanna said.

The women's team also defeated Bentley last Wednesday, edging the visitors by just one match. Brandeis fell behind 2-1 at the end of doubles play with losses at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles, but Judges victories in the first four singles spots led to the win.

At No. 1 singles, Rachel Rosman '11 lost just one game in two sets against junior Kelly Fleszar, while Mackenzie Gallegos '11 dropped just two games in her No. 3 singles victory against senior Marcia Gilbride. Captain Gabrielle Helfgott '09 and Sarah Richman '12 also won in straight sets at No. 2 and No. 4 singles, respectively, to round out the singles wins.

Helfgott fell behind 1-4 in the first set of her victory but said her composed attitude helped her complete the 7-5, 6-1 win over senior Heather Haggerty.

"I got myself in a bit of a rut, but I came back," Helfgott said. "You just have to be calm, that's the biggest thing."

Both teams will travel to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regional Championships next Friday through Sunday, with the men's tournament taking place at Williams College and the women's tournament at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.