Tufts takes out nationally ranked Bowdoin

As the New England Patriots can attest, when injuries hit, a team must persevere. After a tough weekend that included losses to two of the nation's top four teams, Middlebury and Williams, Tufts' men's tennis got it together this past weekend and secured some gutsy victories in spite of a depleted lineup.

Most recently, the Jumbos played their final home match of the season on Saturday afternoon and closed down the Voute Courts with a 6-1 win over Colby. Tufts evened its record at 5-5 with the win, and the Mules fell to 4-7 with the loss.

After a sluggish weekend, the doubles teams stepped up to the plate and secured the doubles point with wins at the first and second spots. At the second slot, sophomore Jon Rubenstein and freshman Sean McCooey were especially impressive, winning their match 8-2 over Colby's Tony Gill and Kevin Yardi. McCooey also shined in his solo performance with an easy 6-1, 6-2 victory at the fifth slot over Tim Stenover.

In his final home match, senior tri-captain Jon Bram had a strong outing with a win over Steen Sehnert at number two singles (6-2, 6-4). Bram and his first doubles partner, junior tri-captain Rifat Perahya, were also victorious with an 8-6 comeback win over Sehnert and Marc Kassin after falling behind 0-4 early on.

"It was my last home match, and I played really well," Bram said. "It definitely would have been sad to lose my last home match."

The night before, however, was the weekend's main event. On a night where the Jumbos needed to take three of four singles matches that went three sets to claim victory, they prevailed with a 4-3 win over 13th ranked Bowdoin.

Although he fell short in his three-set duel versus Pat Keneally at second singles (2-6, 6-3, 3-6), it was a shirtless group of Bram-supporters and the captain's vocal leadership during and after his match that helped fuel Tufts to victory.

With Bram down in his third set, a raucous group of fans ran out and tore off their shirts to spell out "B-R-A-M-!" in the hopes of carrying the tri-captain to victory. The support was not enough, however, as Bram fell 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.

"That definitely was able to give me a little boost," Bram said. "But it was just a little too late in my match."

With the score tied at three, it came down to the fourth singles match-up of Jumbo sophomore Jon Rubenstein and the Polar Bears' Bucky Jencks. Rubenstein was able to break Jencks' serve multiple times early in the third set. However, things tightened up some when Jencks secured a break of his own. In the end, it was the Jumbo sophomore who was able to secure the match for the team with one more service break to win the set and the match (7-5, 3-6, 6-3).

Tufts got three-set victories at the top and bottom of the singles lineup along with Rubenstein's triumph. At first singles, Perahya overcame a tough second set to defeat Mac Burke (6-4, 3-6, 6-1), and freshman Corey Keller earned a hard-fought win at sixth singles over Barrett Lawson (6-2, 3-6, 6-3). Sophomore Ben Alexander had the only two-set win of the day for the Jumbos with a win over John Carolan at number three singles (6-3, 6-4).

Bowdoin fell to 6-4 with the loss.

On Thursday, the Jumbos began the weekend home-stand with a 6-1 loss to 16th ranked MIT. McCooey was the sole victor for the Jumbos with a fifth singles victory over the Engineers' Derek Tsu (6-3, 6-3).

McCooey was also the lone bright spot for Tufts in a 6-1 loss to Trinity last Tuesday. The freshman won a fifth singles against Csoba Godry (6-1, 7-5).

The Jumbos return to action today as they travel to Wellesley to battle non-conference foe Babson.

Despite the injuries the team has suffered this year, the team is impressed with its performance.

"It's funny because the depleted lineup hasn't hurt us too much," Bram said. "Everyone has stepped up in place of the injured guys. We're getting wins in places we wouldn't expect to."