The men's tennis team continued to struggle in the month of April, with losses to Middlebury and Williams over the weekend. The loss dropped the team to 3-3 and dropped the team's record to 0-3 since April 1.
"We are going to see what will happen," Coach Jim Watson said. "We just had three very good, very tough teams back to back."
Hosting Middlebury on Friday, senior co-captain David Ruttenberg and sophomore Rifat Perahya squeaked out the number one doubles match 9-7 while the Lord Jeffs took the second doubles match over senior co-captain Danny Lang and junior Adam Yates. Junior Jon Bram with freshman Jon Rubenstien pulled through 8-5 at number three to clinch the doubles point for Tufts.
In singles though, Tufts would only win two matches -- one by Perahya at number two and one by freshman Ben Alexander at number six. The wins put Perahya at 4-1 and put Alexander at an impressive 5-0. However, with Ruttenberg, Bram, Lang, and Yates all taking their opponents to three sets, the 4-3 match could have easily swung the other way.
"Middlebury was a real backbreaker physically and psychologically," Watson said. "The guys played to the best of their ability, but just came up short."
The Jumbos were not as close Saturday when they traveled to Williams to take on the defending Div. III National Champions. The Ephs began the rout in doubles, defeating Tufts in all three matches. Williams went on to win four singles matches in straight sets, with only Bram and Alexander taking Williams players to three.
"A lot of what happened this weekend had to do with so many matches in such a short time," Lang said. "We were pretty fatigued by the end of it."
Watson felt that Williams' home court advantage played a part in the lopsided score.
"Having to get in the van and drive up to Williams early Saturday morning [after the Middlebury match] made it even tougher," Watson said. "We were pretty flat against Williams, it shouldn't have been that way, it should have been much closer than that."
Although the team hoped to bounce back yesterday at home against Trinity, the match was postponed until Apr. 16 because of snow.
Lang thinks that the break is just what the team needs to get back on track. "The day off gave us a chance to rest our bodies," Lang said. "We came back to practice today with a new focus and are looking ahead to this weekend and think we can still make a run at this thing."
Watson thinks the postponement may hurt Tufts in the long run though.
"The drawback [to the rescheduling] is that we play Trinity at home and turn around and go to Amherst the next day," Watson said.
The Jumbos are looking for a more successful weekend when they travel to Bowdoin and Colby this Friday and Saturday. However, Watson warns that it will not be easy.
"We don't even have a week's rest because we have to go to Bowdoin and Colby this weekend," Watson said. "They are both tough teams, especially Bowdoin. Everyone is saying Bowdoin is the second best in the NESCAC."
Once again Watson feels that the weekend trip may hurt his team, but in this case, because of the facilities.
"More than likely we are going to be playing indoors, which is going to be very favorable to them," Watson said. "At this high level of play it's very hard to adjust to a court in 20 minutes. We have our work cut out for us."
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