Jumbos go 3-0 returning from break

Men's Squash showed no rust coming back into action, going undefeated in their first week back in Medford.

The Jumbos first defeated the University of California-Berkeley 6-3 on Saturday at home, then traveled to Vassar the next morning to defeat Vassar 8-1 and Columbia 7-2.

Coach Doug Eng said he was happy with the performance of his team in the three matches. "We wanted to start the second half of the season out with a bang, and I feel we did," Eng said.

The Jumbos knew that Vassar had given them trouble in the past, but they were ready for them this time. "Vassar has a winning record against us because we always travel out there to play," Eng said. "It's a four hour trip and sometimes we are a bit sluggish when we play them, but we handled it pretty well."

Sophomore Spencer Maxwell did his job at the number one position, winning in 4 games (9-7, 4-9, 9-2, 9-0). Sophomore Tom Keidel and Kolasinski did not lose a game as both posted victories at the number two and three positions respectively. Sophomore Pranav Tripathi lost a hard fought match at the number four position (5-9, 10-8, 4-9, 9-5, 9-6). Sophomore Dan Karlin also was defeated at the number five position in three games, while senior Alex Busse won easily at number six. "The Vassar match was really impressive, just a lot of solid play," Kolasinski said.

The strong early play might have been helped by half of the team training in Montreal during the break, practicing three or four hours a day to keep sharp.

The trip may have provided a boost to the team chemistry as well. "People came back from the Montreal trip in very good form," Eng said. "I think they got to know each other better and the team in general is hitting extremely well right now."

"We got some real good training on the Montreal trip and I think it helped us a lot," senior co-captain Jordan Kolasinski added.

Part of the reason Tufts was so strong against Vassar was because of its match earlier in the day against Columbia which helped to loosen the team up. The Jumbos were a bit sluggish at first, arriving just before the game, but the squad posted solid results by the end of the day.

Maxwell won easily at the first position while Keidel lost a tough five-gamer (6-9, 8-10, 9-6, 9-1, 9-6). Kolasinski was defeated with relative ease at the number three position, but Eng was happy with his co-captain's play.

"The kid Jordan played probably played better than any of the other kids for Columbia that day. We were capable of winning the second match, but Jordan's would have been tough to pull off," Eng said.

The lower part of the Tufts lineup continued its strong play, as numbers four through nine were all victorious. At the six position, Busse managed to pull off a win in five games (5-9, 9-7, 9-2, 6-9, 9-6). Curren won in four games at the nine spot, and the rest of the Jumbos (Tripathi, Karlin, Goldberg, and Linz) all won without dropping a game.

In the match against Berkeley, the team dropped the top three matches, but they came back to win the bottom six.

"They had a real good top three, but we have a real deep team and that is a key for us," Kolasinski said.

None of the lower six Tufts players even lost a game, dominating their opponents with relative ease. Linz only lost one point at number seven. Curren only lost two points at number eight, and Wong only lost three points at the ninth position.

"We were very sharp against Berkeley," Eng said.

The most daunting challenge for the Jumbos in that match was at the number one position where Maxwell faced Hakan Borgstrom, formerly Sweden's number one ranked junior player. Maxwell knew he was going to face a talented opponent beforehand.

"I had seen some of his results and they were very impressive so I knew what I was up against," Maxwell said. "His shots were phenomenal."

The top Jumbo ended up losing 2-9, 1-9, 0-9, but Maxwell took the loss in stride.

"There's a lot of losing involved in getting better so I'll learn from it. I played better on Sunday," he said.

Even with its strong performance over the weekend, Tufts is looking to improve.

"I still think we can play a little smarter," Eng said. "We don't need to hit special shots, we just need to stay focused and play within ourselves. After Fordham and Hamilton things get a lot tougher so we need to be very disciplined."