Senior Timmy Berg and junior Pierre Planche advanced to the finals of the NCAA Division III Men’s Tennis Doubles Championships earning All-America honors and Bobcat of the Week recognition for the week of May 19-25.
Berg (Bradenton, Fla.) and Planche (Natick, Mass.) became Bates’ ninth and 10th All-Americans in program history and the school’s fourth doubles team to attain All-America status. All of the Bobcats’ other All-America pairs have come since 2006 including, Amrit Rupasinghe ’10 and Ben Stein ’09 (three honors), Matt Bettles ’13 and Rob Crampton ’13 (two), and Tristan Beach ’06 and Will Boe-Wiegaard ’06 (one).
Bates’ duo began its run at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center in Claremont, Calif., on Thursday with a 6-1, 6-2 win over the previously undefeated tandem of Daniel Albers and Eric Spangler from Salisbury University in the Round of 16. The next day in the quarterfinals, Berg and Planche beat Byron Balkin and Jake Humphreys of Wisconsin-Whitewater, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3, to advance to the semifinals.
In the semis, the pair topped Joey Fritz and Justin Reindel of Amherst, 6-2, 7-5, avenging an 8-4 loss from Apr. 12 and becoming the first Bobcats to advance to the finals of the NCAA Doubles Championships since Rupasinghe and Stein won the title in 2009. Bates’ season concluded later on Saturday with a 6-3, 6-4 setback to Chris Krimbill and Eric Klawitter of Case Western in the finals.
