After a perfect 4-0 performance at the Mt. Holyoke/Smith Invitational on Jan. 28-29, the women's squash team dropped two straight road matches this weekend to nationally-ranked teams.
The losses, to No. 12 Colby and No. 10 Bates, dropped the team to 6-8 on the season. The No. 21 Jumbos lost a tight match on the road to the Mules, 6-3, and then traveled to Lewistown, Maine were it was all Bates, falling 9-0 to the Bobcats.
Colby picked up all six of its matches from the head of its lineup, sweeping the top six-seeded Jumbos. The hard-fought contest featured several close matches, including four that went to at least four games.
At the No. 1 slot, sophomore Rebecca Rice got down early to Colby sophomore Stacy Petro before clawing back in the third game, only to lose 9-1, 9-4, 9-10, 9-2. Mules sophomore Nina Delano narrowly defeated Tufts No. 3, junior co-captain Julia Avrutin, in five games, 9-5, 9-2, 4-9, 3-9, 10-8. Playing at the No. 6 spot, sophomore Micela Leis lost in four games to Colby freshman Catherine Monrad.
Tufts freshman Jessica Herrmann, who was swept by freshman Sophie Newbury (9-3, 9-3, 9-3) said that the Colby home-court advantage played a noticeable role in the Jumbos' loss.
"The courts were very fast," Herrmann said. "The speed of the game was a lot faster than we're used to. It was a huge factor in our game, and it was a huge surprise for us. If we had been playing on other courts, we would have had a good chance of winning."
Avrutin agreed that playing on Colby's courts put Tufts at a distinct disadvantage in the close matches.
"It took us awhile to get used to the courts," she said. "It could have gone either way, and it went to Colby. Maybe on a different day we could have won."
The bottom of the Jumbo lineup held strong, with senior Sarah Lucas leading the way at the No. 7 slot as she outlasted Mule junior Kate Dziedzic 7-9, 9-6, 9-1, 0-9, 9-3. Senior co-captain Joelle Polivy won in straight games 9-0, 9-2, 9-0 at No. 8, while junior Jennifer Lange swept her opponent 9-0, 9-2, 9-3 to round out the end of the lineup and give the team its third victory against Colby.
The next day the squad journeyed to Bates hoping to move some of the close losses on Saturday into the win column, but the Jumbos were outmatched and outplayed by the Bobcats.
Playing again at No. 1, Rice picked up the Tufts' only game win the third leg of a 5-9, 9-4, 9-1, 9-7 losing effort to senior Melissa Lue Yen. Avrutin fell to sophomore Charlotte Gerrish 9-7, 9-0, 9-3 at the No. 3 position.
No other Jumbo managed to score more than four points in a single game against their Bobcat opponent, and the combined games score of the match favored Bates by a 27-1 margin.
Rice credited the Bobcats' high quality of play in their victory over Tufts.
"They're a really strong team with a deep lineup," she said. "They overwhelmed us."
Avrutin said that physical exhaustion played a role in the Bobcats sweep. In addition, the courts at Bates, much slower than those at Colby, required a 180-degree adjustment from the day before.
"We had some really long matches the night before, so some people were really tired," she said. "They just overpowered us, and the courts were really different [from Colby's]."
With its regular season over, Tufts looks to the NESCAC tournament, which will be played at Trinity this weekend. The Jmbos' 6-8 record earned them a No. 9 seed and a face-off against Amherst on Friday. Tufts lost to the Lord Jeffs 6-3 in early December, but if the Jumbos can turn that into a win this weekend, they will move on to face Trinity, No. 3 in the nation and the tournament's top seed.
Rice said that a solid performance this weekend would give the Jumbos a better ranking going into the Howe Cup later this month at Harvard, the culminating and premier tournament of the season.
"We need a really good win at the NESCACs to raise our seed," Rice said. "It would help us a lot."
A win over Trinity will take Tufts to the NESCAC tournament semifinals, while a loss will yield a rematch against Colby.
"It'll be a challenging weekend," Rice said. "We're going to do the best we can and not go in with a loser's attitude."
