Men's tennis had a chance to rest last week, playing only one non-conference match after going through a furious two-week stretch where the team played nine of its twelve regular season games.
In their only action of the week, the Jumbos traveled to Waltham, Mass., to face the Brandeis Judges last Thursday and secured their second 7-0 shutout of the season. Despite having two of its top six singles players out of the lineup, Tufts was able to take every match except second doubles against a somewhat young Brandeis lineup.
Junior tri-captain Rifat Perahya had the easiest outing of the day for the Jumbos, as he earned a 6-1, 6-2 victory over the Judges' Tomas Wallenberg at first singles. Senior tri-captain Jon Bram was pushed to a third set super tiebreaker at second singles over Sam Jonas which he won 10-5 after dropping the second set 7-6 with a 7-1 tiebreaker.
He won the first set 6-0. Perahya and Bram had the easiest doubles match of the day at the first slot as they made quick work of the team of Wallenberg and Jonas (8-2).
With the singles win, Perahya earned his seventh victory of the season, improving his record to 7-4.
Also gaining his seventh triumph of the spring was freshman Sean McCooey who took the fifth singles point with a 6-1, 6-4 triumph to move his record to 7-3.
In the rest of the day's action, sophomore Ben Alexander defeated Mike Vulfovich 6-2, 6-3 at third singles, sophomore Jon Rubenstein took a fourth singles win over Alan Berk (7-5, 6-3), and freshman Corey Keller bested Rob Friedman by a score of 6-2, 6-3 at sixth singles.
In doubles play, Keller teamed with freshman Geoff Loh at third singles and won 8-3 over Silverman and Jamie Metrick. Rubenstein and McCooey dropped second doubles to Vulfovich and Berk, but it did not cost the team a point.
While a win over the struggling Judges was expected, coach Jim Watson was especially happy with the Jumbos' shutout performance.
"They played really well," Watson said. "I was [only] predicting 5-2 for us, and they won 7-0."
Watson continues to recognize the team's impressive performance despite having a lineup plagued by injuries to junior tri-captain Adam Yates and sophomore Paul Roberts.
"The kids replacing our injured players have really stepped up," he said.
With the win, Tufts guaranteed themselves a .500 record on the regular season, as they moved to 6-5 with only a match at Babson remaining to be played.
The match versus the Beavers was previously scheduled for last Tuesday before being rained out, and it is tentatively rescheduled for a week from today.
The loss was the Judges' third straight 0-7 defeat as their record fell to 5-7 before breaking the slump with a 7-0 victory over Connecticut College.
Tufts -- who climbed in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association Div. III rankings from No. 24 to No. 22 nationally and from seventh to sixth in the northeast -- now has this weekend's NESCAC Championships on its immediate radar.
They leave Thursday night for Williamstown, MA, where the event will be hosted by Williams College.
The Jumbos finished fourth place as a team in last year's tournament, and many of the current players will be drawing on past success in NESCACs.
Perahya had success in both the singles and doubles portions of the tournament. He advanced to the finals of the second singles flight and teamed with last season's senior co-captain David Ruttenberg in the first doubles flight to advance to the semifinals last season.
Perahya will likely be in the number one flight in both singles and doubles, where he will team with Bram, who paired with Rubenstein to advance to the number three doubles semifinals in 2003.
Another member of Tufts' current roster who had success in 2003 was now-sophomore Alexander, who advanced to the finals of the sixth singles flight last spring.
Watson said he recognizes the parity that has dominated the conference throughout 2004, and he knows anything is possible this weekend.
"The favorites in the NESCAC are Middlebury," the coach conceded. "After that, there are many good teams, including ourselves. Bowdoin beat Bates, we beat Bowdoin, and Bates beat us, so go figure."
