The men's tennis team struggled this past weekend at Williams College in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Regional tournament failing to advance a single player to the second round in either singles or doubles. The tournament was dominated by Middlebury, which sent six players to the round of eight, including the eventual winner, Panther senior Brian Waldron
In the first round, Bates first-year Ben Stein beat Tufts senior tri-captain Jon Rubenstein in a solid 6-3, 6-2 victory. Trinity senior Johnny Hart triumphed over senior tri-captain Paul Roberts 6-4, 6-0, and Amherst junior Lennart Lepner defeated sophomore Will Fleder in a very close match, 7-5, 7-6 (3).
The Jumbos were ousted from the doubles bracket by Trinity's two doubles teams. Sophomore Tom Dolan and senior Jim Ames had a convincing 8-0 victory over Roberts and freshman Vinh Tran, while sophomore Bret Ramsey and junior Brian Marsden beat Fleder and Rubensein 8-4.
The less-than-stellar outcome shows that the team has a lot of work left to do before the spring season.
"I played abysmally, but the only way to go is up," Roberts said. "The competition is tough. We don't have any superstars, but we have a very deep team."
Coach Doug Eng was not too disheartened by the team's losses, and believes it is early enough for the team to still develop.
"We stroke the ball pretty well and have a deep team," Eng said. "We are not going to kill anyone in a match, so it all comes down to whoever plays the smartest and works the hardest, and this is exactly what we plan to do."
While the team did not perform well at the tournament, Rubenstein said the players are using this past weekend's matches to look at what needs improving.
"I didn't play that well," he said. "It's kind of a wakeup call that we need to work hard before it really starts in the spring, and that goes for everyone."
The team lineup has not been finalized yet but Eng predicts that the top six will include Fleder, Rubenstein, Roberts, junior Sean McCooey, senior tri-captain Ben Alexander and junior Corey Keller. The coach also anticipates that Tran will find himself somewhere in the top seven.
Alexander is currently injured, but will likely return to the courts for match play by the start of the spring season, and will tackle some of the problems holding back the team.
"We have to work on our fitness and our mental toughness" before the spring season, Alexander said.
Last spring the team produced a 6-7 record, which they hope to better this year. But the Jumbos have a lot of work ahead, especially given the brief fall season. Tufts has not won the NESCAC league title since 1989. The Jumbos will have to go through Middlebury, as the Panthers have won the conference the past two years and, judging from last weekend's strong showing, are in fine form in 2005 as well
"We don't really have a full fall season," Eng said. "It's kind of like the first 30 games of baseball; it's too early to tell which teams are strong."
The men's tennis team ends its fall season this Saturday when it will travel to Bates College for the Wallach Invitational. The Jumbos had a strong presence in the event last year, winning both the doubles "A" draw and "B" draw.
