Despite facing tough competition in three separate matches this past week, the women's tennis team was able to come out of the stretch with a 2-1 record, increasing its overall mark to 3-1. The team's only loss came on Sunday to the Williams Purple Cows, a perennial Division III powerhouse.
The Jumbos were not satisfied with the loss to Williams but were happy to win two out of the three matches. "We are never happy about a loss," Coach Jim Watson said. "But up until the Williams match we had not given up a set in a singles match, so that is a step in the right direction."
After topping Wellesley on Thursday and Colby on Saturday, the Jumbos could not continue their winning ways Sunday, falling to Williams 6-3. The Jumbos remained in contention, however, and had a chance to win the match, trailing just 4-3 at one point.
"Williams is one of the top five teams in the nation," Watson said. "They have been beating everyone 9-0 so it was good to be in the match at the end."
"I think we gave them a respectable match," freshman Barclay Gang said.
The Jumbos did give the Williams a challenge, winning one doubles match and two singles matches. The two singles wins came from junior Erika Lee, who beat Tracy Cheung 6-1, 6-3 and sophomore Iffy Saeed, who topped Tina Howe, 7-6, 6-3. Sophomore Katie Nordstrom and Lee took their doubles match, 8-5, over Cheung and Selma Kikic.
Unfortunately, Nordstrom, Gang, and sophomores Emily Warshauer and Rachel Hammerman all lost their matches in straight sets.
"They have better skills than we do," Watson said of Williams. "Their volleying skills are better and when you play a team that is that good your weaknesses become very apparent. We have to work on our doubles play but we are getting there."
Warshauer was a little more optimistic about the Jumbos' performance against Williams. "We are definitely capable of beating them," she said. "When they bring their A-game, however, they are tough to beat."
The Jumbos had a little more luck in their preceding match, a 7-2 win over the Colby White Mules in Medford. The White Mules, easily Tufts' most difficult opponent of the season aside from Williams, took two of the three doubles matches. The first doubles team of Nordstrom and Lee lost a tough 9-7 match to Colby's Britt Palmedo and Jenny Grace, and the third doubles team of Heather Rich and Jen Lai lost to Sabina Warren and Emily Walker, 8-3. The only doubles team that won was that of Gang and Warshauer, topping their opponents 8-0.
"After losing two doubles matches in the beginning we were definitely worried," Watson said. "But we are stronger in singles than we are in doubles so we were able to win. We have to work on ourdoubles play."
The confidence and support translated into the Jumbos sweeping their singles matches easily without giving up a set.
Saturday's win over Colby came on the heels of a convincing victory over a weaker Wellesley squad. The Jumbos picked up where they left off from their season opening win over Smith College by dominating Wellesley at home, 9-0.
The three Tufts doubles teams cruised right through their matches, giving up a total of just eight games. The first doubles team of sophomore Nordstrom and junior Lee gave up the most games, topping Wellesley's Mia Pearson and Megan Evans by an 8-6 score. The second doubles team of freshman Gang and Warshauer then won, 8-2, over Malini Sekhar and Elizabeth Okasako. The third doubles team of sophomore Hammerman and junior Daniela Fontecilla hardly broke a sweat in an easy 8-0 victory over their Wellesley opponents.
The success in doubles then carried over to the singles matches, where the only challenge came in the second set of Rich's sixth-singles match, in which she was forced to win seven games. The other singles matches were won easily in straight sets.
Despite the success of the past week, the Jumbos still have some issues to address in practice this week, among them solidifying both the third doubles and sixth singles spots. Coach Watson will have plenty of time to work on selecting who will fill the spots, with an entire week of practice until the team's next match this Sunday.
The third doubles team has seen combinations of five different athletes in the last four matches, and both Rich and Hammerman have occupied the sixth singles spot. Watson has been looking for the best players to fit into those spots and will decide who those players are in practice this week.
"The problem is that we have so much depth on this team," he said. "We have to put some closure on the situation, though, and we hope to resolve it this week."
Still, the team's depth is certainly not a shortcoming, as was demonstrated in its near-win over Williams on Sunday. "We knew that Williams was going to be tough, but we were happy to get two out of the three matches especially with some tough matches coming up," Warshauer said.
The team will take on Middlebury this Sunday, at which point Watson hopes to have remedied the situation at third doubles and sixth singles. Last year, Tufts beat Middlebury, 6-3, after dropping the all three doubles matches.
"They have very aggressive doubles and our doubles teams are our weakness so we need to have good doubles on Sunday," Watson said. "They are a tough team, so we can't take them lightly."
The Panthers will visit the Voute Courts on Sunday, with the Jumbos' next match tentatively scheduled at Connecticut on Tuesday.
"We'll be ready," Warshauer said.
