Both the men's and women's tennis teams faced some of the toughest competition they had seen all year, as the women's team faced No. 1 Tufts University and No. 5 Amherst College, while the men faced off against No. 21 Bates University and Division I Boston College. The women's team dropped both of its matches, while the men dropped to BC after an impressive victory over rival Bates.The women's team began its tough stretch with disappointing back-to-back losses. Just a week after dominating Bates, New York University and Babson College, the Judges had no answers against tougher competition from Tufts and Amherst.

"It was a tough weekend for the women," coach Ben Lamanna said. "They played two very highly ranked teams. We battled hard, and we had chances to win."

On Sunday, the No. 30 Judges faced off against the first-ranked team in the country, Tufts, and fell 8-1. Tufts swept the doubles competitions, as senior Julia Browne and rookie Shelci Bowman defeated Rachel Rosman '11 and Faith Broderick '13 8-5. Nina Levine '12 and Mackenzie Gallegos '11 fell to sophomore Lindsay Katz and rookie Eliza Flynn 8-4, while Alexa Katz '14 and Roberta Bergstein '14 lost to sophomore Janice Lam and freshman Samantha Gann 8-2.

In the singles matchups, the Judges earned their only win when Allyson Bernstein '14 beat Flynn 5-7, 6-4 and 10-5. Rosman gave Browne a run for her money, but ultimately fell in three sets with scores of 2-6, 6-4 and 10-3. Katz defeated Broderick 6-4, 6-1; Bowman beat Gallegos 6-0, 6-1; and Bergstein dropped to Gann 6-0, 6-3 to round out last Sunday's match.

The women were not much better last Saturday and fell 8-1 to Amherst. Katz and Bergstein picked up Brandeis' only win in the doubles competition, defeating junior Kim Snyder and senior Charlotte Wilinsky 8-5 in the third doubles slot.

"Alexa Katz and Roberta Bergstein brought home a solid win," Lamanna said of the match.

In Brandeis' losing doubles matches, rookies Jordan Brewer and Gabby Devlin beat Broderick and Rosman 8-6 in a close match, and seniors Mimi Bell and Carlissa King defeated Gallegos and Levine 8-6.

Amherst swept Brandeis in the singles matches, as Brewer beat Rosman 6-0, 6-4 in the first seed, Devlin beat Broderick 6-0, 6-4 in the second seed, King beat Gallegos 6-4, 0-6 and 6-4 in the third seed, Bell beat Bernstein 6-1, 6-3, and Snyder beat Levine 6-0, 6-1 to round out a losing day for the Judges.

The men's squad started the week strongly, defeating archrivals Bates 6-3. Dave Yovanoff '13 and Steven Nieman '11 defeated freshman Tim Berg and senior Samuel Woods 8-4, and Ezra Bernstein '11 and Josh Jordan '13 beat junior Jeffrey Beaton and freshman Ben Bogard 8-3 for Brandeis' two wins in doubles. Sophomores Matt Bettles and Robert Crampton defeated Simon Miller '11 and Nick White '11 8-5 in the first doubles slot.

However, despite their loss in doubles, both Miller and White had huge wins in singles competition. Miller defeated No. 3 Bettles 6-3, 7-5 and White defeated No. 19 Crampton 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.

"The big momentum switch was Nick [White] and Simon [Miller] winning their singles matches against two nationally ranked opponents," Lamanna said. "Just another case of a senior wanting it badly. My guys just wanted to win it badly."

Jordan beat Peter Yanofsky 6-4, 6-2 in the fourth singles spot to clinch the win for the Judges, and Nieman beat Bogard 2-6, 6-2, 11-9 for Brandeis' sixth win.

"I was really proud of my guys," Lamanna said. "The [University Athletic Association] has six nationally ranked teams out of eight, and we were at the bottom of the national rankings, and we've talked about a win against Bates. ... We set ourselves up to still be in the hunt for an NCAA berth."

The men struggled, however, against Boston College, losing 9-0 to the Division I powerhouse.

The men's team will face the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Thursday, while both the men and women will face Trinity on Sunday. Yovanoff said that if the team continues to play consistently, it will repeat results like it had against Bates.

"To be more consistent and repeat our result against teams like Bates, we simply have to have that same high intensity and calm, cool but collected type of focus both mentally and physically," he said. "Saturday was one of our better team efforts collectively and we simply need to take this momentum into our matches Thursday and Sunday against similar caliber teams [like] MIT and Trinity."


-Jonathan Steinberg contributed reporting.