Stein, Rupasinghe earn double All-NESCAC honors in men’s tennis
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| Ben Stein ’09 (left) and Amrit Rupasinghe ’10 will have a chance to repeat as All-Americans in men’s tennis doubles, while Stein will have his first shot in the singles championship as well. |
HADLEY, Mass. — Bates College men’s tennis players Ben Stein and Amrit Rupasinghe both earned two All-NESCAC honors for the second straight year, the New England Small College Athletic Conference announced on Friday.
Stein (Pelham, N.Y.) and Rupasinghe (Colombo, Sri Lanka) repeated as an All-NESCAC doubles team, moving from Second Team last year to First Team this year. Rupasinghe repeated as a single players on the All-NESCAC Second Team, while Stein was named to the First Team as a singles player, after being named to the Second Team in singles in both 2007 and 2008.
The announcement comes two days after the NCAA announced both Stein and Rupasinghe will compete in the NCAA Division III Men’s Tennis Championship. They will again represent Bates in the 16-team doubles field. Last year Stein and Rupasinghe reached the semifinals at the NCAAs in front of their home crowd at Bates, securing All-America honors for themselves.
Also, for the first time in his career, Stein will compete in the 32-player field of the singles championship.
The tournament takes place at the Claremont McKenna-Harvey Mudd-Scripps Colleges in Claremont, Calif., following the team championships. The singles and doubles championships will run from May 22 to 24.
Stein amassed a 17-6 singles record this year, competing against each opponent’s top singles player, many of whom will also represent their schools at NCAAs.
The same goes for the doubles opponents encountered this year by Stein and Rupasinghe, who went 20-6 on the year, including winning the doubles title at the ITA New England Championships and taking fourth place at the ITA National Small College Championships in October.
View the NESCAC Men’s Tennis All-Conference Team release (PDF)