Jumbos suffer three losses, crucial injury, at Mount Holyoke

The women's squash team headed to last weekend's Mount Holyoke College/Smith Invitational believing it might be able to win three of the four matches it had on the slate. A serious knee injury derailed that hope.

The team defeated Franklin Marshall 7-2 in their first match of the weekend, but lost its number two seed, freshman Erica Adler, to a knee injury. Three subsequent shorthanded losses to Mount Holyoke, Amherst, and Smith left the team a disappointing 1-3 in the tournament.

Adler's knee gave out as she went after a ball in the first game of her match. She went on to lose in four games (9-7, 3-9, 4-9, 4-9).

"Erica is a tough cookie," coach Doug Eng said. "She wasn't saying much about the injury during the match but [the injury] got progressively worse."

Freshman Jules Avrutin also lost, falling in three games at the number one position (3-9, 0-9, 0-9). But the next seven Jumbos picked up the slack, winning with relative ease to give Tufts a 7-2 victory.

Unfortunately for the Brown and Blue, those numbers were reversed later in the day when Tufts fell to Mount Holyoke, 7-2. The Jumbos dropped the first through seventh spots, with junior Rhonda Barkan and sophomore Joelle Polivy emerging as the only victors in the match. Senior tri-captain Leigh Checchio lost a tough five game match (9-2, 2-9, 9-2, 3-9, 2-9). The Tufts squad lost its momentum after Adler bowed out earlier that day.

"I think maybe we could have won 5-4 if we had Erica," Eng said. "The two through five positions were where the competition was supposed to be, but without Erica, it was tough."

On Sunday, the squad fell to Amherst, 9-0, before putting up a tough fight in a 5-4 loss to Smith later in the day. With Adler still out of the lineup, Avrutin, Checchio, and junior Nicole Arens all lost in straight sets at the top three spots for Tufts. Junior tri-captain Eliza Drachman-Jones put up a strong rally effort at the number four position, but still could not dig out a win, losing (0-9, 0-9, 9-4, 9-6, 5-9).

"The match started out poorly for me," Drachman-Jones said. "I lost the first two games badly, so I just went into the third game with nothing to lose. I just put it all on the line."

Eng was not as critical of Drachman-Jones' performance.

"Eliza played one of her best matches," Eng said. "She got moved up a few spots but she still played great."

Amherst still proved just too strong as the rest of the matches were not close.

Against Smith, the Jumbos lost the top five matches, but rebounded to win the bottom four.

"Against Smith we were shorthanded because of the loss of Adler, but even still we thought it was a winnable match," Eng said.

Avrutin and Checchio both lost in straight sets at the number one and two spots, while at the number three spot, Arens dropped a very close five game match (9-3, 8-10, 4-9, 9-5, 9-3).

"Nicole played brilliantly at times," Eng said. "She was attacking very well but she didn't defend the backcourt as well as she needed to."

Drachman-Jones and sophomore Zoe Bolesta lost in straight sets at the number four and five spots, respectively. The rest of the Jumbos fared well, as freshman Liz Thys, Barkan, Polivy and sophomore Sarah Lucas swept the sixth through ninth positions.

Drachman-Jones, while disappointed in the final results of the weekend, focused on the positives.

"We wanted the results to be better so we were disappointed," she said. "But considering the circumstances, I thought we played real well."

The circumstances were indeed difficult for the Jumbos, as Adler's opening-match injury meant that everyone behind her had to play up a slot.

"It's not looking good right now," Adler said of her injury. "I can't straighten my leg. We're just waiting for the MRI."

"We're still not sure if she'll be out for the rest of the season," Eng admitted.

Without Adler, the team is set to play Connecticut College this weekend.

"If we play smart, I don't think we will have too much of a problem with Connecticut," Eng said.