The men's tennis team turned heads throughout the region last weekend by winning both doubles draws in the Wallach Invitational at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. Sophomores Sean McCooey and Geoff Loh won the A-draw, 8-4 over Middlebury while fellow second-years Corey Keller and Matt Gallin took the B-draw beating Bowdoin, 8-5.
McCooey and Loh entered the A-draw unseeded but upset the first, second and fourth seeds on their way to the win.
"I didn't want to leave to play my match, they were playing so well," junior and number one singles player Paul Roberts said. "Every shot they had was going in; they were just on fire. They were in the zone for the entire tournament."
The highlight of McCooey and Loh's tournament came in the quarterfinals with the 8-5 win over top-seeded Bowdoin. Polar Bears Mike Burke and Garret Gates were heavily favored to win the doubles A-draw, and both Bowdoin players illustrated their strengths in winning the A and B singles draws, respectively. But McCooey and Loh snuck up on them and denied the Burke/Gates duo domination over the tournament.
"When we showed up on Saturday morning and saw the draw, we really didn't think we could get through [Burke and Gates]," McCooey said. "But we built some momentum in the first match and then came out aggressive and took a 3-0 lead. Bowdoin thought they were going to walk all over us, and once we took them out, we knew we could beat anybody."
"That win was unbelievable," coach Jim Watson said. "[McCooey and Loh] were very confident and very aggressive, and they beat [Bowdoin] handedly."
McCooey and Loh went on to beat Colby in the semifinals, and finished off the field with a win over second-seeded Middlebury in the finals. Roberts and freshman Will Fleder competed in the A-draw for Tufts as well but were ousted by Bates in the second round.
"We both played really aggressively and never got down on each other," McCooey said. "That was the main reason we were so successful."
Keller and Gallin's performance in the B-draw also stood out in the tournament. Having never played doubles together before last weekend, the two sophomores showed their ability to adapt and play at a highly competitive level.
Seeded third entering the draw, Keller and Gallin earned a first round bye. They then went on to tackle Colby in the quarterfinals and Brandeis in the semis. In the finals, the Jumbo duo faced an unseeded Bowdoin team that had upset number one seeded Bates in the previous round.
Keller's 125 mile-per-hour serve and both team members' solid play led to the 8-5 win and a Tufts sweep of the weekend's doubles competition.
"I am very happy with this weekend's results," Watson said. "I was really proud of [the two victorious doubles teams]."
Tufts was not as successful on the singles side of the tournament. Loh was seeded third in the singles B-draw and lost in the semifinals to Middlebury's Fil Marinkovic. The seven other solo Jumbos lost in either the first or second rounds of their respective draws.
Four of the top six Tufts players did not participate in this tournament, including injured senior captain Adam Yates and classmate Rifat Perahya, who is abroad. These absences afforded Watson the opportunity to juggle some of his younger players and arrange the two surprisingly successful doubles teams.
"I just sort of put them together," Watson said. "McCooey and Loh gel very well together because McCooey is left-handed and Loh is a righty. They communicate well and also know how to break the tension and keep themselves loose."
Having the depth to simply rearrange doubles pairs on the spot bodes well for the Jumbos' upcoming spring season. With the fall tournaments wrapping up after last weekend and only JV/Varsity matches against Ivy League club teams remaining on the fall schedule, Watson and his team will soon turn their attentions to the future.
"A lot of the varsity spots have not been determined yet," Watson said. "This recent success demonstrated just how much depth we have, and it gave me a chance to see some of the younger players."
"We don't have any superstars," Roberts added. "But we are just so deep. This will give us a lot of incentive to play well going into the spring."
Occasionally, individual players competing for a limited number of singles spots can mean a problem for team chemistry. Roberts, however, feels this is not the case for this group of Jumbos.
"This is the first time I have been on a tennis team where there was no animosity among any of the players," Roberts said. "Everyone supports each other, and it's a calm atmosphere. It really feels like a team, especially after this weekend."
Last year, Tufts finished ranked 22nd in the nation with a 7-4 dual match record. The emergence of young, solid players like McCooey, Loh, Keller, and Gallin, along with a returning veteran core, could spell success for the Jumbos again come spring.
