ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- The Brandeis women's tennis team lived up to its seed at the 2011 University Athletic Association championships hosted by Washington University, finishing in sixth place by going 1-2 in the tournament. The Judges close their season with a record of 11-9.
The weekend opened up on Friday, April 22, with a match against third-seeded Carnegie Mellon, the No. 13 team in the nation. The Judges' lone point came at No. 2 doubles, where senior Mackenzie Gallegos (Friendswood, Texas/Friendswood) and junior Nina Levine (Westport, Conn./Staples) took an 8-5 decision. The Judges nearly had the lead entering singles play, but senior Rachel Rosman (Bonita Springs, Fla./Estero) and sophomore Faith Broderick (Washingtonville, N.Y./Washingtonville) suffered a late break and lost, 9-7. Two of Brandeis's rookies also had tough losses in singles action. At No. 3, Allyson Bernstein (Northbrook, Ill./Glenbrook North) dropped a marathon tiebreaker in the first set before falling, 7-6 (13-11), 6-3. Classmate Roberta Bergstein (Hingham, Mass./Hingham) lost a pair of tiebreakers - including a third-set supertiebreaker - after winning the first set, bowing 2-6, 7-6 (8-6), 10-8, to her Tartan opponent.
Coach Ben Lamanna's squad bounced back nicely on Saturday, April 23, winning six of the seven matches they completed in the consolation semifinals against Case Western Reserve, dropping no more than three games in five of those wins. Rosman and Gallegos were both 6-2, 6-1, winners at the top of the lineup, while Bernstein and Levine each had second-set bagels, winning, 6-3, 6-0, and 6-2, 6-0, respectively, with Bernstein's match at No. 3 clinching the win.
In the fifth-place match against Rochester later that night, it was another tiebreaker, this time in doubles, that proved to be the difference. UR's Janice Zhao and Jamie Bow outlasted Bergstein and fellow rookie Alexa Katz (Philadelphia, Pa./Abington Friends), 9-8, 9-7 in the tiebreaker. The teams ended up splitting the singles matches, with Gallegos, Bernstein and Bergstein each winning their matches after the Yellowjackets had decided the match. Gallegos won 6-4, 6-2 at No. 3. Bernstein took a 6-0, 7-6 (7-2) win at No. 4 and Bergstein earned a 6-2, 6-4 triumph at No. 6.
