The difference between a successful return from winter break for the men's squash team and a disappointing one came down to a single point.
In the opening match of a Sunday doubleheader at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, the No. 16 Jumbos surrendered to No. 15 Navy in a heartbreaking 5-4 loss. After notching wins from sophomore Jake Gross at No. 1, senior co-captain Thomas Keidel (fifth) and classmate Dan Karlin (seventh) along with first-year Chris Devereux in the eighth position, Tufts needed only one more win to close out the match.
The team never found the crucial fifth point, however, as freshman Chris Delaney and junior David Linz pushed their matches to five games - with Linz reaching a match point - before falling 3-2 at the second and ninth spots in the lineup, respectively. After squandering multiple opportunities to close out the match, the Jumbos had nothing to show for their efforts, and found themselves on the losing end of a 5-4 Midshipmen victory.
"The difference between us and them was their ability to elevate play in close situations," Keidel said. "Tactically, they were better. When it was time for us to play smart, aggressive error-free squash, we were not able to."
After a tough morning, the team rebounded in the afternoon to close out the weekend trip with a convincing 7-2 result over host Haverford, the 30th-ranked team in the nation. Playing in its third match in two days, Tufts rested Gross, Karlin, and Linz, giving underclassmen some court time.
Two of the three subs picked up wins in their first action of the weekend. Freshmen Josh Levinson and Chris Martin got 3-0 wins in the seventh and eighth spots in the lineup, adding some extra cushion after Delaney, senior co-captain Spencer Maxwell, sophomore Kris Leetavorn, Keidel, and sophomore Nelson Schubart won in the top five spots.
On Saturday, the team fell 7-2 at No. 12 Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., with only Gross and Karlin getting wins. The match was the team's second after a seven-week break, following Thursday's 8-1 victory over No. 21 Connecticut College, in which the Jumbos showed no signs of rust.
After splitting its four January matches, the team enters February with a 7-5 record. Tufts plays tonight at MIT with a match against No. 10 Brown before traveling north to Maine for NESCAC battles with No. 18 Colby and No. 13 Bates. A win over either Brown or Bates would likely improve Tufts' national ranking, but none of that will matter unless it takes care of business Saturday at Colby.
According to Keidel, a focal point for this weekend's matches will be maintaining mental poise.
"[Avoiding distraction] is very difficult because many of us have years of negative mental habits to overcome," Keidel said. "But I believe that we can reverse enough of those this week to prevail over Colby."
