The only thing different about the men's tennis team's 9-0 road loss to No. 7 Amherst College last Saturday from its previous six matches was the opponent. The reeling Judges have now lost seven matches in a row and are 5-9 on the season, having been swept in three of their last four competitions. Their last win came in Orlando, Fla. Feb. 23 against Capital University.

In doubles, the No. 1 team of captain Scott Schulman '09 and Simon Miller '11 proved to be the most competitive, but they lost to Amherst senior captain Zack Lerner and sophomore Moritz Koenig 8-4. The No. 2 doubles pairing of Mayur Kasetty '11 and Seth Rogers '10 was knocked off 8-1 by Amherst sophomore Priit Gross and rookie Austin Chafetz, while No. 3 partners Craig Elman '12 and Josh Bookman '12 also lost 8-1 to Amherst rookies Wes Waterman and Andrew Jung. The Judges have not won any of their doubles matches during the course of their seven-match losing streak.

"The guys just don't have enough confidence on the doubles court against those top teams," coach Ben Lamanna said.

Singles play did not prove to be any more fruitful for the Judges. Though No. 2 singles player Schulman was able to force a second-set tiebreaker against Amherst freshman Julian Camacho, he ended up losing both sets, 6-4, 7-6 (5). The remaining five singles players combined to win just eight games overall, as each Brandeis player was swept in at least one of his two sets.

Miller was defeated at No. 1 singles to rookie Surain Asokaraj 6-2, 6-0; Rogers was knocked off at No. 3 singles by sophomore Sean Doerfler 6-0, 6-1; Kasetty was handled at No. 4 singles by junior Dan Kim; Bookman fell at No. 5 singles to Robby Sorrel 6-4, 6-0; and Elman lost at No. 6 singles by sophomore Tony Sheng 6-0, 6-1.

Despite the one-sided scores, Lamanna said he felt his team was competitive. He said Rogers' 6-0, 6-1 loss was an example of a match in which the score would indicate a blowout but in reality was one in which Rogers was "in every single game," forcing deuce in many of the points.

"It's a really lopsided score, but there's a lot of positive things going on out there," Lamanna said. "We're just not able to put together those big points well."

Five of the seven teams the Judges have lost to during their seven-match losing streak-Amherst, Middlebury College, Trinity College, Bates College and Tufts University-are ranked in the top 30 nationally according to collegetennisonline.com as of March 17. The Judges have also played the last four matches without regular top singles player Steven Nieman '11, who has mononucleosis, and have not played a single match this spring with Mike Tatarsky '12, who has a herniated disc in his back.

"Obviously we're not going to make nationals or anything this year but every time you play a match, especially against these good teams, it should be a good opportunity to get better," Schulman said. "That's how you get better-by playing strong opponents."

The Judges will next compete today at home against Boston College at 3 p.m.

A match against Babson College at home yesterday ended too late for this edition.