Their season began with a five-hour roller-coaster ride of a match. Early on, the men's tennis team's chances of victory looked strong. They won an early singles match, but Bates came back to win the middle part of the match, taking a 3-1 lead, meaning that the Jumbos needed to capture the final three matches for a victory. In the end, the team came up just short.
The match would turn out to be a microcosm of the season as a whole for a team that finished 6-7. There were many times throughout the season when it seemed the Jumbos were ready to overcome injuries and inconsistency to make the playoffs, yet they always came short against the top brass of the NESCAC.
Whether the Jumbos admit it nor not, the injuries to senior co-captains Rifat Perahya and Adam Yates along with Ben Alexander missing almost the entire season had a tremendous effect. For one, it was often too difficult for them to game-plan due to placement inconsistency. The injuries also had a psychological effect on the rest of the team.
Still, the team developed an ability to quickly put losses behind them. After a difficult NESCAC tournament in which the Jumbos finished seventh out of a field of 11, the Jumbos played Babson on Apr. 26 in non-league competition and pulled out a 5-2 win. Yates led the way with a two set victory in the No. 1 spot.
Two days later, Tufts closed out its season on a loss, dropping the final match to Williams, 6-1. The only Tufts winner was sophomore Sean McCooey, who took a super tie-breaker 10-4 to win at No. 5 singles.
The Jumbos struggled all year against more difficult competition. They often circled big matches on the calendar weeks in advance, including Middlebury, Bowdoin, Williams, Amherst and Trinity.
Each was supposed to be a defining moment, one in which the Jumbos could make a statement and show that their victories against non-league competition and weaker NESCAC competition such as Connecticut College were not the peak of their ability.
"We had a lot of high expectations coming in," Sophomore Sean McCooey said. "Seeing that it was Rifat's and Adam's last year and we were unable to win those matches, it is obviously disappointing."
There is not one single factor that explains the Jumbos' difficulties in "those big matches." At various points, the team struggled to deliver strong first serves and make aggressive returns. Subsequently, the Jumbos were often chasing opponents' shots all over the court instead of trying to hit winners.
"It is impossible to isolate any one thing when you look at it," said junior Paul Roberts, who will captain next year's squad. "I mean for me it was not having the big serve, for Yates it was not having a backhand, and for Fleder it was a deficiency in the speed department.
"Additionally, these struggles always seemed to occur at different points during the season, almost like a comedy"
Roberts, however, was in the spotlight in one of the Jumbos' most thrilling moments of the season.
The junior handed one of Amherst's top players, Lenny Lepner, his first loss of the season. In another match, he led the No. 18 player in the country by a score of 5-1 at one point.
"I put a deep scare into that kid and it was a tremendous feeling," Roberts said.
With his ever-competitive nature, the future captain cannot wait until the leaves turn green next spring, and he certainly has an ambitious agenda.
"I am already looking forward to revamping the practice schedule, making workouts more intense, and having a strong character team again next year."
Roberts will have a tough to act to follow considering the chemistry that developed between this year's players.
"We lost matches, but when we think back on the season, what I am going to remember most is our trip to California during spring break, the night we spent at a hotel in the woods of Maine, and those long trips to Williamstown," McCooey said.
"These moments reflect the true character of our team."
