Jumbos take third at NEWITT Championships

After finishing second to Amherst at last fall's New England Women's Intercollegiate Tennis Tournament (NEWITT) Championships, the women's tennis team had their sights set on the top spot at this year's event.

But yet again, the Lord Jeffs as well as tournament champion and old nemesis Williams stood in the way of the Jumbos' goals. Tufts finished third out of 24 squads who made the trip to Amherst for the three day event, which spanned from Friday through Sunday.

Of the six singles players and three doubles teams who took to the courts for Tufts, eight of them made it to at least the semifinals. This is no small task, especially considering that each flight, meaning each bracket of nine, consisted of a round of 32 spots. But despite all the participants, it was only sophomore number two player Becky Bram who was able to get to the finals.

"Relatively speaking, we did not perform as well as we would have liked," head coach Jim Watson said. "We weren't able to convert the close matches that we had been winning recently."

The close matches were certainly in abundance, with the majority coming later in the tournament rather than early on. For the most part, the first three rounds in each bracket resembled the cake walks the Jumbos had grown accustomed to this fall season while playing non league teams, as well as some of the lower teams on the NESCAC totem pole.

The highlights of the weekend for the Jumbos came in the form of redemptions. Bram, the third seed in the second flight, had a first round bye and then won two matches rather handily before she would have to face Middlebury number two seed Amy Roche, who handed Bram her only loss (6-0, 6-0) at Middlebury earlier this season.

Bram turned the tables on her this time around, ousting Roche 6-0, 6-2 to move on to the finals. Bram then fell victim to MIT fourth seed Caroline Tien, 6-3, 6-4.

Another pleasant surprise was the play of the only unseeded Jumbo participants of the weekend, the flight two doubles team of junior Neda Pisheva and senior captain Barclay Gang. Their first match was against a second seeded Amherst tandem, and Gang and Pisheva (2-2 on the season) didn't bat an eyelash as they eased their way to an 8-3 victory.

The duo then handled a Springfield pair 8-0 before losing 8-4 in the semi finals to the Middlebury twosome and third seeds Jena Siegal and Amy Roche. That same Middlebury group beat Gang and Pisheva by the identical score in September. Siegal and Roche went on to win their flight championship.

In other doubles action, the Jumbos' number one, but second seeded, pair of junior Jen Lejb and freshman Jen Luten suffered their second loss of the season 8-1 to a third seeded tandem from Williams that would end up winning their flight. Lejb and Luten had cruised through the first three rounds after a bye and wins over Wheaton and Colby players.

In the third doubles flight, Bram and fellow sophomore Lisa Miller endured their first loss together of the fall, as they were downed in a hard fought match 8-6 by another eventual champion, this one from Amherst. They also had breezed through the first three rounds, beating Endicott, Wheaton and Connecticut College.

"We were a little disappointed that we fell short of our goals, but I'm really proud of the way we fought all the way," Miller said.

Miller, as well as Deary and Luten, all took their first singles losses of the fall season in their semifinal matches. Luten was the number two seed in the third flight and out dueled women from MIT and Trinity before bowing out to number three seed Alexandria Maclennan of Williams 6-4, 6-4. Miller, the third seed in the fifth flight, beat players from Wheaton, Wesleyan and Connecticut College before losing to first seed and eventual champion Courtney Bartlett from Williams 6-4, 6-0. Deary, the two seed in the sixth flight, suffered a similar fate, only in a much more riveting match as she was victimized 6-3, 1-6, 7-5 to third seed Katie Hudson of Amherst.

Fourth seed Gang also lost in the semis from the fourth flight, 6-2, 6-1 to Middlebury's one seed Claire Smyser, who had also beaten her in September. Gang already beat competitors from Brandeis, Wesleyan and Wellesley to get to that point.

"From Saturday into Sunday the situation wasn't great for us," Watson said.

With the fall season complete, the Jumbos now turn their attention toward the spring, where they will face rivals Amherst and Williams in duel meets as well as play in the NESCAC tournament, and hopefully the NCAA tourney.

"This meet didn't go our way, but it's just something to build upon for the spring," Miller said. "Williams came in third at this last year and they went on to win the NESCAC."