The tennis team lost two difficult matches to MIT and Amherst this past week, but was able to give Wesleyan its annual thrashing.
On Tuesday, the Jumbos traveled to Cambridge, MA to take on a formidable MIT team that finished the 2000 season ranked sixth in the nation by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA).
"We expected to have a very tough match," head coach Jim Watson said. A tough match is exactly what Tufts got and the Jumbos fell 4-2 to the Engineers.
Tufts' only wins came at the hands of sophomore star David Ruttenberg, who whipped MIT's Jeff Augustyn 6-1, 6-,1 and freshman John Bram, who continues to assert his value to this team, defeating Anish Parikh 6-3, 6-2.
"David just keeps rolling along," Watson said of his number one player. Ruttenberg has been battling bronchitis all season, but that hasn't stopped him from proving himself to be one of the nation's most dominant players.
Bram too has had a strong start and has really impressed his teammates with his play. "We have a strong player in Jon Bram," co-captain senior Adam Scott said.
Scott and his fellow co-captain, junior Mark Fitzgerald, also put up noteworthy performances, though they were not able to come away with victories. Scott, who has been hampered by a pulled hamstring, won the first set 6-2, before dropping the second and third sets 6-2 and 6-4, respectively. "I don't know how Adam played so well," Watson said, referring to Scott's injury.
Fitzgerald lost two hard fought sets, 7-5, 6-4, to MIT's Marco Hernandez.
"They were a little tougher than us," Watson said. But considering MIT's national ranking, the Jumbos were not overly discouraged by the loss.
The match against Wesleyan on Saturday afternoon was a completely different story for the Jumbos. "As long as I have been here, we have never lost to Wesleyan," said Watson, who took over the reigns of the tennis program in 1981.
The Jumbos didn't fall into the trap of underestimating their opponents and were able to secure a 6-0 win. With Ruttenberg suffering from bronchitis and the competition not especially strong, Watson let Ruttenberg rest and added freshman Sonny Kathpalia as the sixth player on the team. Kathpalia responded well to his first official collegiate match notching a 6-2, 6-2 win.
Since Ruttenberg did not play, the most impressive match of the day was won by Adam Scott who filled Ruttenberg's large shoes and beat Wesleyan's Alex Wong in a long three set thriller 4-6,7-5, 7-6 (10-7).
But the most important match for the Jumbos last week was its meeting with the Amherst Lord Jeffs. Last year, the Jumbos were able to top the Lord Jeffs for the first time in five years. Amherst, however, followed the loss with a string of impressive victories and finished the season nationally ranked 12th by the ITA.
Ruttenberg took the courts first and had no problem with his opponent, dispensing of Amherst's Bryan Wexler 6-1, 6-4.
Sophomore Danny Lang's match was the second one to end, and although he was able to push his opponent to a third and deciding set, he fell 6-1 in the third.
Sophomore Brian Brendell had a golden opportunity to put the Jumbos up 2-1 when he was two points away from victory late in the second set. But Brendell let the second set slip away in a tiebreaker and couldn't recover, dropping the third set 6-3. Brendell's sore ankle was a major factor in his third set collapse.
"Brian's coming of age," Watson said. "He was controlling the match but couldn't put the kid away."
Fitzgerald tried to tie up the match but lost two tough sets 7-5, 7-5. With Fitzgerald's loss, Bram had the unenviable task of trying to postpone defeat, but he just couldn't top his opponent, losing 6-2 in the third set.
"It was a very hard fought match," Watson said, but he couldn't help but resent the advantage that Amherst had playing on its own unique courts. Amherst's "courts are very fast. You can't get used to something like that in a ten minute warm-up," Watson said. The disadvantage stacked the decks against the Jumbos.
"If the match was played on neutral courts, we might have won," Watson said.
Despite the two losses this week, Watson said that he was "proud of the team." "We are playing good tennis," he said.
If there is one thing that Tufts can do to pull out the close matches it has been losing, Watson said the team must "take advantage of situations to press and attack. We need to put our opponents away when we have the openings."
Although four of the six Jumbo starters, Ruttenberg, Scott, Bram, and Brendell, have either injuries or illnesses, there is no time to rest with matches against Middlebury and Williams coming up this week. Middlebury will come to Medford on Friday and coach Watson and company expect a tough match.
"Middlebury is very solid," said Watson. After the Panthers, Tufts will be pitted against a Williams squad that finished the 2000 season ranked fourth by the ITA.
