College Feature
Amherst Wins D-III Men's Tennis Championhip, Emory Takes Women's Title
by James Hill, 28 May 2014
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The Biszantz Family Tennis Center in CLAREMONT, Calif., was the site of the NCAA Division III Men's and Women's Tennis Championships May 19-24.
The fourth-ranked Amherst Lord Jeffs men's team won its second NCAA team title with a 5-3 victory over the top-ranked and host Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags. Amherst was down 1-2 after doubles, but came back to capture four of five singles matches. The win marked Amherst's second championship in the past four years, with the last in 2011. CMS played in the championship final for the second consecutive time.
Amherst is coached by Chris Garner, while C-MS is led by Paul Settles.
In the semifinals, the eighth-ranked Trinity Tigers (TX) were leading Amherst 3-0 after the doubles competition. The Lord Jeffs staged their first comeback of the tournament, by winning five singles matches. C-MS fought off a scrappy Middlebury Panthers team and prevailed 5-2.
Trinity had upset the No. 2 Washington-St. Louis Bears 5-1 in the quarterfinals, as the Tigers made the semis for the first time in 14 years. Amherst took out the Emory Eagles 5-1, C-MS beat the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays 5-3, and Middlebury defeated the Case Western Reserve Spartans 5-1 in the other quarterfinals matches.
Trinity coach Russell McMindes was selected as the Wilson/ITA National Men's Coach of the Year.
The top-ranked Emory women's team won its sixth NCAA title with a 5-1 decision over No. 2 Amherst. Emory, led by coach Amy Bryant, last won the title in 2006, the end of a four-year championship run. Earlier, Bryant became the first female in NCAA history, in any division, to win the national team championship as a coach and player (a feat she accomplished in 1996).
