The Jumbos accomplished what they set out to do at last weekend's Mount Holyoke Invitational, but despite a 3-1 record on the trip, there was a slight taste of frustration. Despite playing well, the team dropped a very close match to William Smith, a team that was one spot ahead of them in the national rankings.
The weekend couldn't have started out better, as Tufts defeated Smith 6-3 and then beat close rival Mount Holyoke 8-1. On Sunday the Jumbos began the day with a 9-0 sweep of Wesleyan, but they finished with the disappointing 4-5 loss to William Smith.
"Overall the weekend went very well," senior co-captain Eliza Drachman-Jones said. "Our goal going in was to go 3-1 and we did that, despite being shorthanded."
"But the William Smith match was still a heartbreaker," Drachman-Jones added.
Once again, the Jumbos were forced to play shorthanded. Sophomore Erica Adler is expected to miss the rest of the season with health problems, and senior Nida Ghouse was out of the lineup with a leg injury.
"I think we had to step it up considering the circumstances," Drachman-Jones said. "And I think we did."
In the match against William Smith, Tufts dropped the top three matches. Sophomore Jules Avrutin lost in three games at the number one spot, freshman Rebecca Rice fell in a tight five game match at number two, and senior co-captain Nicole Arens also dropped a close five gamer.
Drachman-Jones recovered from a two game deficit to pull out an impressive victory.
"That was one of the best matches of my squash career," Drachman-Jones said. "Even though I lost the first two games, they were very close. I just told myself going into the third game I could do it. I started taking advantages of my opponent's weaknesses and then she started to get frustrated."
Senior Rhonda Barkan won at number six in three games, sophomore Jenny Lange was victorious at number eight, and junior Sarah Lucas came through at number nine to spot Tufts its other three victories.
"The match was so frustrating because we had so many five game matches," Drachman-Jones said. "We lost one of the five game matches at 9-10 in the last game, so it could have gone either way. This gives us some motivation to beat them in a couple weeks at nationals."
Coach Doug Eng was equally disappointed.
"We played a good match, but not our best," Eng said. "What was so tough was that we were up 4-0 against them, and one of the matches we were up 2-0 and 8-4 in the third game but we couldn't pull it out."
"Losing that match was a little bit like the Yankees dropping that series to the Red Sox this year," Eng added. "But I knew even when we were up 4-0 it was going to be tough because of the matchups."
The Jumbos still had a lot to be happy about, considering they played well in sweeping Wesleyan earlier in the day. No player dropped a single game in the match.
"Going into the Wesleyan match, we were feeling confident but we knew the match wasn't going to be given to us," Drachman-Jones said. "Everyone had to fight to win their matches and we deserved to have the match come out the way it did."
Earlier in the week some of the Jumbos pointed to Mount Holyoke as a persistent past rival, but this season the Jumbos pulled away for a relatively easy victory.
Avrutin battled her opponent and ended up coming out with a hard-fought five game victory against Mt. Holyoke 9-5, 7-9, 9-10, 9-5, 10-8. Rice won in three easy games at number two and Arens won in four games.
Drachman-Jones and sophomore Liz Thys both won in four games as well and Barkan won in three.
Lange and Lucas continued to give the Jumbos solid play at the bottom of the lineup as they both won in three games.
In its first match of the weekend, Tufts defeated No. 24 ranked Smith 6-3.
"We didn't play great against Smith," Eng said. "We were a bit shaky at first, but it was our first match of the semester so that's to be expected."
At the top spot, Avrutin lost in three games. However, the Jumbos picked up victories at spots two through five. Rice and Arens won in three games, while Drachman-Jones won in four and Thys won in five. Barkan was defeated in five games as well.
Polivy and Lange won at seven and eight in four game matches while Lucas lost a tough five game match at number nine.
The Jumbos are certainly happy to have Polivy and Lucas home from abroad in addition to the return of Lange from injury.
"Joelle, Sarah and Jenny all played really well," Drachman-Jones said. "We're very excited to have them back and it's nice to have some new players to help out."
The Jumbos have a match on Friday against Brown, a top 10 team in the national rankings. Though Tufts may be the clear underdog, the team hopes to use the match to gain experience against top competition.
"Playing against teams like that makes you work harder," Drachman-Jones said. "We can use what we learn in the Brown match against teams we might play later, like William Smith."
