The men's tennis team turned in a great performance last weekend, as both doubles teams advanced to the second round of the 2011 Intercollegiate Tennis Association New England Regionals at Williams College. In the tournament, the duo of Hunter Bielfield '15 and Alec Siegel '15 advanced to the quarterfinals before being eliminated by a team from Williams.

Bielfield and Siegel first went up against Babson College freshmen Ramone Doyley and Roy Murdock, and they defeated the Beavers 8-5. The duo next squared off against Middlebury College senior David Farah and sophomore Edward Fitzgibbons, pulling out a close 9-8 win.

Coach Ben Lamanna was impressed with his first-years in their tournament debut.

"I thought [Hunter and Alec] played great," he said. "They've been working hard. They've been improving, and I thought they had a great showing. It was a nice win over Middlebury in a tie-breaker."

Lamanna credited the success in the doubles bracket to several factors, including team cohesion and a solid ability to work together.

"We generally try to maximize what each individual can do, but we do have a style that we like to play," he said. "[Steven Milo '13 and Dave Yovanoff '13] have had some big wins for us over the years, and they have some good chemistry together, and I think [Bielfield and Siegel] really learned a lot about each other …and are starting [to] gain that chemistry as well."

In the quarterfinals, Bielfield and Siegel went against the home-court team of Williams junior Felix Sun and sophomore Matt Micheli. Brandeis could not pull out another win, losing the match 8-6.

The Judges' first doubles team of Yovanoff and Milo opened up against Wesleyan University freshman Stephen Monk and junior Ben Hudson. Yovanoff and Milo knocked out their opponents 8-3 and advanced to the second round.

Milo explained that he and Yovanoff have a great deal of trust in each other.

"[Yovanoff] and I have been playing together since freshman year," he said. "I pretty much know what he's going to do before he does it, and he knows the same about me."

In the second round, Yovanoff and Milo found stiffer competition in the form of Bates College junior Matt Bettles and sophomore Tim Berg. Bettles and Berg, coming off an 8-0 shutout of Springfield College, defeated the Judges tandem 8-4.

In the singles bracket, Brandeis did not have as much success. Siegel battled Bates freshman Pierre Planche and dropped in consecutive sets, 6-2 and 6-4. Milo was defeated by Bettles once again, losing by scores of 6-2 and 6-4. Yovanoff lost 6-4 in consecutive sets against Bowdoin College junior Oscar Pena, while Bielfield came up short in his match against United States Coast Guard Academy junior Blake Maurer, losing 6-4 and 6-1.

While the team did not perform as well as it would have liked to in the singles tournament, Milo remained positive about the weekend's results.

"We can definitely play with the big boys in doubles," he said. "In singles, we were right there also. This time, it didn't go our way, but next time, we're going to take it for sure."

Lamanna saw much room for improvement in the singles play.

"We did a lot of learning this weekend," he said. "We still got a lot of work to do on the singles court. As long as our guys stay comfortable and keep working at it, we don't know the ceiling for this team, or if there will be one. But it was a good tournament to get experience. On the singles court, for example, [Milo] was like 1-12 on break points to get to Bettles. Little things like that—on the break points—that's usually where the games usually start. There's a lot of little things. But, hey, our freshmen got matured a little bit."

Despite having plenty of room to improve, Lamanna said that the team's drive to succeed would be an asset going forward.

"I think the most important thing with these guys is that they all want it pretty bad, and they don't fear anybody," he said. "So, that's it. It's a great couple [of] qualities to have. They all want it bad enough, … and they all want to be the best player. It's great to have that to work with."

The men's tennis team next plays on Oct. 7 at the Wallach Invitational at Bates. The women's team, meanwhile, will participate in the ITA Regionals this Friday.