The men's squash team came into last weekend facing the daunting task of playing national powerhouse Trinity as well as two other competitive matches against Wesleyan and Hamilton.
The Jumbos finished with mixed results as they defeated Wesleyan 5-4, but fell to Hamilton 6-3 in a match with some missed opportunities on Saturday at Trinity. Tufts put up what it considered a respectable fight against Trinity on Friday, but still fell 9-0.
The top of the Jumbo lineup had a very strong weekend. Freshmen Jake Gross and Kris Leetavorn won both their matches at the one and two spots respectively on Saturday.
Gross defeated Wesleyan's Andrew Rozas with ease, notching a 9-1, 9-2, 9-0 win. Leetavorn had to work a bit harder for his win, but he managed to pull off a 4-9, 9-6, 2-9, 9-2, 9-1 victory.
Senior co-captain Fernando Kriete won the number five spot by a score of 9-7, 9-3, 9-5.
"It was a good win for us," Kriete said, referring to the Wesleyan match. "But we also definitely have the potential to do better."
Sophomore Dave Linz was victorious at number six, winning by a score of 9-5, 9-1, 9-10, 9-2. Playing the number eight spot was sophomore Dominic Wong, who won in three games, posting a 9-1, 9-5, 10-8 victory.
"[Wesleyan was] ranked ahead of us," Gross said. "So it was nice to get a win against them."
The Jumbos did not experience the same success later in the day against Hamilton, as they had trouble putting away some early leads. Gross and Leetavorn had no such difficulties, however, winning easily in three games.
"Hamilton was a heartbreaker," Coach Doug Eng said. "They are a very deep team. They don't have a lot of power at the top, but they have a number of good players."
At the number three position, freshman Nelson Schubart lost a hard-fought match 7-9, 9-5, 9-2, 10-8. Sophomore Tom Keidel won in three games by a score of 9-1, 10-8, 9-4. Kriete fell in three games at number five.
One of the matches in which Tufts had a chance but couldn't quite pull out was at the number six spot, where Linz fell in five games after establishing a 2-0 lead (8-9, 1-9, 9-2, 10-8, 9-5). Junior Pranav Tripathi also experienced similar problems at number seven, falling in five games after starting out with a commanding lead (0-9, 2-9, 10-9, 9-2, 9-0).
"People performed pretty well," Kriete said. "But we could've played better, myself included. We could've taken Hamilton if we stuck with the game plan a little more and finished off some of the early leads that we had."
Gross echoed his captain's frustration.
"The Hamilton match was disappointing because we were ranked higher than them and we lost three incredibly close matches," Gross said.
The Jumbos didn't hope to pull off an upset victory over Trinity, the best squash team in the nation and a perennial national champion; they merely wanted to be competitive. The team did make some progress on that front, as three of the matches were very close.
Gross put up a fight at number one, taking a game off Eric Wadhwa, but falling by a score of 9-4, 9-1, 6-9, 9-4.
"They didn't use their top guy against me," Gross said. "But Eric is probably ranked around 30-35 in the nation. It was a real tight match; I probably should have pulled it out."
Leetavorn won a game as well at number two, but lost 9-7, 9-2, 5-9, 9-1. Kriete lost in a competitive match (9-5, 9-7, 9-2).
"Against Trinity I think I surprised my opponent a little bit," Kriete said. "They're number one in the country, so they can walk in and be a bit lazy. So I surprised him and stuck with him throughout."
Tripathi won his first game 9-0 impressively, but he later succumbed by a score of 9-0, 4-9, 3-9, 9-0.
"I thought we played very well against Trinity," Eng said.
In hopes of improving for the future, the Jumbos are going to be focusing on a few key areas.
"We need to work on finishing the job in some of these matches," Kriete said. "We've also got to work on fitness a little bit."
Gross agreed that fitness was an area that needed some improvement, but he also cited a few other factors.
"I think our team just needs some more match experience," Gross said. "I think experience will help with the mental game and allow us to pull out some of the closer matches. Personally, I also have to work on being more patient so that I can get the nerves out of the way earlier and pull out more close matches as well."
Eng sounded optimistic with regard to the future.
"I have complete confidence in this team," Eng said. "We're also going to get some strong players coming back from abroad [next semester]."
