By Edwin Sam ’13, Sports Section Editor
After finishing a stellar high school career, Joey Fritz ‘10 is continuing his winning ways at Amherst College, where he helped the Lord Jeffs win their first NCAA Division III national championship in tennis this May. Fritz also won the state title while attending CCDS. “[Winning a state championship] felt good, but this one feels a lot better,” said the CCD alumnus and former state champion. “I like the feeling of a team victory better than personal or individual glory.”
Amherst Head Coach Chris Garner, who was ranked No. 1 nationally in his 16-and-under age group in 1984, turned the team around from a small, unranked school in Massachusetts to the top team in the nation. Garner played in the ATP, Association of Tennis Professionals, and reached the 16th round of the Australian Open in 1993.
In 2009 and 2010, the Amherst tennis team finished as runner-up in the NCAA tournament, but the senior and junior leadership and quality coaching this year helped them overcome the results that plagued them the last two years. “We went out to California a week early to train which we hadn’t done before,” said Fritz, “We were extremely focused, we had a goal, and we did whatever we could to get it.”
Beating their rivals, Williams College, in the semifinals, the team carried an 18-match winning streak into the national championship. Unity, selflessness, and team chemistry proved key as Amherst cruised to a 5-2 victory over top-ranked Emory University in the national championship.
The format of Division-III NCAA tennis differs from that of high school or even professional tennis. Three doubles matches are played followed by six singles matches. Each match is worth one point and the first team to get five points wins the overall match.
The three Amherst doubles pairs pushed Amherst ahead to a 2-1 lead before the singles matches began. Fritz was the first singles player to finish his match, handing Amherst a 3-1 lead with a 6-1, 6-2 domination at the 4th singles position. “During the match I was very, very focused. My adrenalin was up, and I was ready to go. I don’t think I’ve ever been that focused in a match before,” said Fritz.
Fritz described his elation from winning the title saying that he could not stop smiling for two hours. “After my match, I was just relieved and excited for the team because I had a feeling we were going to win the championship at that point.”
This national title for Amherst may be a sign of things to come in the future as the group returns all singles players and all but one of the doubles players that played in the national title match. In Fritz’s words, the national title “is a testament to how focused our team is and how focused our coaches are. It shows a lot about the depth of the team, the hard work, and how much each person matters.”
Photo courtesy of amherst.edu
