Injury bug strikes Jumbos

While Tufts athletics does not have a Nomar Garciaparra or a Trot Nixon, any Jumbo squad is susceptible to the injury bug, and it has bitten the men's tennis team in a big way.

With junior tri-captain Adam Yates already out of the lineup with a knee injury, Tufts lost undefeated sophomore Paul Roberts and his undefeated singles record to a broken finger prior to this weekend's back-to-back losses against Middlebury and Williams, both among the nation's top four teams.

Most recently, the Jumbos fell at home to Williams on Saturday afternoon in the Gantcher Center by a score of 5-2, falling to season record of 3-3 with the loss.

The second-ranked Ephs improved to 6-4 with the win.

Freshman Corey Keller, getting the start at sixth singles due to Roberts' injury, won in his first singles appearance of the season over Bryan Monier (7-6, 1-6, 11-9). With the result of the match already decided, a tiebreaker was played to decide the third set.

Junior tri-captain Rifat Perahya was also victorious for Tufts, defeating the nation's 19th ranked Div. III singles player, Andrew Murray (6-4, 6-4). With the win, Perahya improved his singles record to 4-2.

With the injury to Roberts, freshman Geoff Loh filled in at third doubles, partnering with Roberts' singles replacement, Keller. The duo, in their second match together, fell 8-6 to the team of Monier and Ted Haley.

"They're just getting acquainted with each other," Watson explained. "Both of them are aggressive players and big servers."

On Friday, Tufts traveled to Middlebury for its first match with their newly-depleted lineup.

Despite some good singles performances at the top of the lineup, the Panthers proved to be too much for Tufts and improved to 9-3 with the win.

Senior tri-captain Jon Bram was the most impressive with a first set win but eventually fell to Nathan Edmunds at second singles (6-1, 3-6, 3-6).

Perahya fell to Brian Waldron, Div. III's tenth-ranked player, for his second loss of the season (2-6, 6-7), and sophomore Ben Alexander fell in a close set at third singles to Justin Ingoglia (5-7, 4-6).

Alexander's singles record now stands at 3-3 on the season.

Despite the losses, Watson found a silver lining in the strength of this past weekend's opponents.

"We've got two of our top six [singles players] out," Watson said. "I was impressed by the team's enthusiasm and fight. If you look at the scores, you see that a lot of the matches were close. We had some chances against Middlebury, and nobody mailed it in."

Amazingly enough, Tufts is already hitting the home stretch for 2004. With five matches in a span of eight days, the Jumbos' regular season will be over next Tuesday, barring postponement.

Although their two most difficult opponents are certainly behind them, there is still some stiff competition ahead, and no match will be easy with the absences of Yates and Roberts.

Tufts traveled to Trinity Tuesday, but the results were not available by deadline.

It will not get any easier for the Jumbos, as they host MIT tomorrow and Bowdoin on Thursday. Both are nationally-ranked teams.

Against MIT, Perahya will have an especially difficult task, as he will meet Even Tindell, ranked number one among Div. III singles players, at first singles. With Sean Schoenmaker recently obtaining his eligibility after transfering from Div. I James Madison University, Watson is certainly aware of the 16th-ranked Engineers' strength at the top of the lineup.

"MIT just got a very good player at the number three slot," he said. "Their top three is very strong."

After hosting No. 13 Bowdoin on Thursday, the Jumbos host Colby on Saturday in their final home match of the season. They travel Waltham to play Babson on Tuesday to close out the regular season.