Tonight, as it takes on Connecticut College, the women's squash team (6-5) will try to move past its disappointing loss to the Bates Bobcats, and focus on important upcoming challenges.
On Friday night, the Jumbos found themselves in Lewiston, Maine getting pushed around by the Bobcats, unable to muster the effort they needed to beat the strong Bates squad.
"Bates has unique courts that are tough to prepare for," head coach Doug Eng said. He attributes his team's poor statistical performance on the court size and on the fact that the ball just did not bounce Tufts' way.
"We had a lot of winnable matches," Eng said. "But the team needs to learn how to finish off its opponents when it gets the opportunity. Most of the matches were winnable."
The lone bright spot was sophomore Eileen Connor's 3-1 win over Bates' number six player. Sophomore Iffy Saeed and senior Lani Radford had especially tight matches and put up courageous efforts. Saeed's match went to five games and she actually had a match point, but eventually lost 10-8 in the fifth game.
"I was really tired and our match had gone on for a while," Saeed said. "The two games I had lost were definitely mental. Hopefully I will get a chance to play her [opponent] in nationals. I can definitely beat her."
According to the latest national poll, which is still in the appeal phase, Bates is ranked 13th - one spot ahead of Tufts. Therefore, the Jumbos did not lose any ground on Friday but missed an opportunity to move up in the rankings.
The team is confident that if it meets Bates again in the nationals next week, it will be a much closer match.
"We just want to put [the Bates match] behind us and move on," assistant coach Missy Meo said of the team's focus for this week.
Coming off a successful weekend at the Mt. Holyoke Invitational, this Friday's match was a downer for the Tufts team. The Jumbos hope to improve team morale tonight when they take on rival Conn. College at the Harvard courts at 6:30 p.m.
"It would be nice to get a 9-0 win going into nationals," Eng said. "We are a little bit stronger at every position." The 11-8 Camels have won three straight, and may make a shutout a very challenging feat.
After the Connecticut College match, the Jumbos will focus entirely on nationals, which will be held this weekend at Yale. Most likely, the Jumbos will face Colby in the first round, the only team in Division B against which the Jumbos have not competed. Eng said that his team has a shot against every team in the division except for the top two, Bowdoin and Williams (ranked ninth and tenth respectively).
"This year since we are playing Division II, it is going to be really tough," Saeed said. "We are going to be playing some tough teams. Hopefully we can step up to the occasion. It should be a good weekend."
"We're all psyched for nationals," captain Justine Kurland said.
