On Feb. 8, the Judges took the court to face off against Holy Cross’ men’s tennis team at the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center. In just their second match of the season, the Judges hit the ground running with their three doubles tennis teams. At number one doubles, Daniel Shemesh ’28 and Oliver Lorenz ’29 represented Brandeis. They faced Holy Cross players Teddy Callery and Ezequiel De la Plaza. Shemesh and Lorenz dominated for an easy 6-1 victory. 

Brandeis’ Muaz Malik ’29 and Huasen Dong ’27 took on Holy Cross’ Colton Parker and Aayush Jhaveri at number three doubles. The Judges were broken once and lost 4-6. In order to earn the doubles point for the overall match, a team must win two out of the three of the individual doubles matches. Therefore, the coveted final doubles point was left up to number two doubles. 

At number two doubles, Brandeis’ Pierce Garbett ’27 and Aidan Wang-Fan ’28 played a close match against Holy Cross’ Matthew Carlson and Patrick Ling, ultimately winning in a tiebreaker 12-10. With this second doubles victory, Brandeis secured the first point of the overall match. 

Up a point entering into singles matches, Brandeis’ top three singles players took the court and all battled through three sets. At number three singles, Brandeis’ Malik played Callery. Malik took the first set handedly 6-2 and broke during the first game of the second set. However, after falling down a break, Malik couldn’t salvage the set and lost 4-6, forcing the match into a third set. Ultimately, Malik was overpowered by Callery and lost the match 6-2, 4-6, 2-6, leaving the overall match score at 1-1. 

Brandeis earned a win at number two singles with Garbett defeating Carlson in three sets. Despite dropping the first set after losing his serve early, he battled back in the second set winning it 6-3. In the third set, Garbett broke Carlson’s serve for a 3-2 lead and ultimately won the match 4-6, 6-3, 7-5. 

At number one singles, Shemesh went up 5-2 in the first set but ultimately lost it in a tiebreaker against De la Plaza. In the second set, Shemesh again earned a 5-2 scoreline and closed out the set 6-2, bringing the match to a third-set decider. In a nail-biter of a final set the players battled to a 5-5 score, but Shemesh won the next two games, securing the win in three sets. 

As the next three singles matches started, the overall match score was 3-1, meaning that the Judges needed one more victory to win the entire match. The final win came from Lorenz at number five singles. Facing off against Holy Cross’ Camilo Illanes, Lorenz lost his serve early, falling down in the set 0-3. However, he came back to win the set 7-5. He then took the second set 6-1. With this win, Brandeis won the overall match with a score of 4-1. 

After their victory against Holy Cross, the Judges’ record is now 1-1. Next, the team travels to California to face off against the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Sunday, Feb. 15.