Williams tops Bates in NESCAC men's tennis playoff
May 1, 2009

Ben Stein (right) and Amrit Rupasinghe scored Bates' lone point in a 5-1 setback at Williams in the NESCAC Men's Tennis Championship first round. (Photo by Suzy Preston)

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Third-seeded Williams, the host of the 2009 NESCAC Men’s Tennis Championships, dealt sixth-seeded Bates a 5-1 loss to advance to the conference semifinals tomorrow against second-seeded Amherst College. 

The Bobcats (10-6) and the Ephs squared off just 10 days ago, with Williams (11-4) taking the 7-2 win, and the doubles matches unfolded in similar fashion, with Bates’s All-American top duo of senior Ben Stein (Pelham, N.Y.) and junior Amrit Rupasinghe (Colombo, Sri Lanka) taking the win at court one and the following two points scored for the Ephs. Nick Lebedoff and Will Petrie, and Jeremy Weinberger and Kevin Shallcross, tallied solid 8-2 and 8-3 wins for the Ephs, respectively.

With the match played to decision, Williams needed three wins in singles to take the match.  Seniors Rick Devlin and Karol Furmaga both won 6-1, 7-5 decisions at courts three and six, while Weinberger battled in a second set tiebreak against Rupasinghe at No. 2 singles to clinch the match.

Bates will wait to see if the team, or any team members, make the field for the upcoming NCAA Championship competitions. Williams will face off against Amherst in the conference semifinals at 9 a.m. tomorrow.

For more on this story and what's going on with the Bates tennis teams, please catch up with us on the team blog at http://batestennis.wordpress.com/

Williams 5, Bates 1

Doubles
1) Ben Stein/Amrit Rupasinghe (B) def. Bret Thacher/Dicken Chaplin (W) -- 9-8 (7)
2) Nick Lebedoff/Will Petrie (W) def. Max Berger/Ryan Mannelly (B) -- 8-2
3) Jeremy Weinberger/Kevin Shallcross (W) def. Zach Fenno/Mike Reiss (B) -- 8-3

Singles
1) Lebedoff (W) vs. Stein (B) -- DNF
2) Weinberger (W) def. Rupasinghe (B) -- 6-3, 7-6 (9-7)
3) Rick Devlin (W) def. Berger (B) -- 6-1, 7-5
4) Petrie (W) vs. Reiss (B) -- DNF
5) Kevin Shallcross (W) vs. Fenno (B) -- DNF
6) Karol Furmaga (W) def. Mike Sherman (B) -- 6-1, 7-5