The men's tennis team faced three of its most fierce NESCAC opponents this week, beating Middlebury 5-2, but losing badly to both Williams and Trinity 0-7 and 1-6, respectively.
"Every team seemed to be better than the last one," said Adam Scott, the team's co-captain.
Most recently, the Jumbos faced Trinity College, when, due to what coach Watson termed "disciplinary actions," Tufts played with a depleted squad. Co-captain junior Mark Fitzgerald and freshman Jon Bram were not allowed to play in the match for undisclosed reasons.
"Fitzgerald and Bram are not the only ones to be punished. There will be more to come," Watson said.
The effects of the player absences were definitely felt in the Jumbos' 6-1 loss. "[Trinity's] one and two are solid players - quality players," Watson said. That showed in David Ruttenberg's and Adam Scott's straight set losses. The rest of the lineup was forced to move up a couple of spots and sophomores Danny Lang and Brian Brendell couldn't handle the jump, both dropping their matches without mustering much resistance to their opponents' onslaught.
"With our whole team we could have beaten them," coach Watson said.
Surprisingly, the best efforts were put forth by two members of the team who are not usually in the starting lineup. Freshman Sonny Kathpalia lost to Trinity's Murmmer Khan 6-2, 6-1, but Khan's victory was not as easy as the statistics indicate.
"Although the score doesn't reflect it, Sonny had lots of adds to win games, but just couldn't capitalize," Watson said.
Tufts' only win came from an unlikely source, sophomore Nick Nguyen, who had not played in a varsity match all season. Nguyen had relatively little trouble with Trinity's Peter Green, winning 6-2, 6-4. After the match, coach Watson said he was proud of Nguyen's win: "Nick's win reflects our depth - he played a great match and worked hard," Watson said.
Three days earlier, Tufts traveled to Williams to take on the team that finished the 2000 season ranked fourth in the nation by the ITA. The Jumbos, as expected, had a lot of trouble with the Purple Cows, and though the starting team played in the match, Tufts was trounced 7-0.
The silver lining for coach Watson's team was that all three top players, though they did not capitalize, had set points. Playing a sport so often decided by a small number of points, many of the Jumbos' losses this season have been the result of the team missing opportunities.
"The lower half of our lineup is working hard and playing well," Adam Scott said.
Unfortunately, they were overmatched by the depth of the Williams squad. The Jumbos were worn out for the Williams match; their only win of the week had come hours earlier against a strong Middlebury squad. In the Middlebury match, the only two losses for Tufts were suffered by Scott and Fitzgerald.
"I had a pulled hamstring all of last week, so I don't think I played that well," Scott said. Fitzgerald, who put up a strong fight, won the first set in a tiebreak before dropping the second and third sets to Middlebury's Matt Dougherty.
The teams Tufts faced this week were competitive, and the odds were further skewed by the injuries from which most of Tufts' players are recovering and by the disciplinary actions that kept some key players off the court
The tennis team should have a healthy and full squad when they travel to Bowdoin today for a rematch of a disappointing loss last season. Emotions will run high as Tufts tries to avenge the defeat. Bowdoin is a vocal team, according to Watson. "They won the second point of a doubles match and they were out there yelling and screaming and chest-bumping," he said.
Following last year's match, the Polar Bears said they would never play at Tufts again, but NCAA rules forbid teams from backing out of matches until a year after a complaint is filed. This year's match is unavoidable, but potentially intense.
"We're looking forward to the Bowdoin match more than any other match all season," Scott said.
