It was a long and disappointing weekend for the men's tennis team.
The Jumbos dropped home matches against NESCAC rivals Colby and Amherst on Friday and Monday, respectively, bringing their overall record to 4-7 and their league mark to 1-5.
In the spirit of Marathon Monday, the Jumbos hung in for long, close matches against Amherst. Despite their endurance, though, the team members failed to pull out the tight matches effectively and fell 5-1 to the Lord Jeffs.
The Jumbos took a big step in the wrong direction early on, starting out the day by losing all three doubles matches, each by a score of 8-2. The Jeffs had no trouble downing senior tri-captain Paul Roberts and junior Matt Gallin at number one as well as senior tri-captain Jon Rubenstein partnered with junior Sean McCooey at number two. The compatible pair of junior Corey Keller and sophomore Will Fleder was also unable to find a rhythm against Amherst freshman Zach Lerner and sophomore Tal Avrahami.
As the Jumbos took to the court for their singles matches against Amherst, the captains knew they had to dig deep to have a shot against the 21st-ranked Lord Jeffs. The pressure was intensified by the fact that the match was the last one at home for the Jumbos this season, as well as the last of the seniors' careers.
As the Boston Marathon continued downtown, so did the Jeffs' determination. Amherst dominated four of the six courts in the first set; McCooey, the Jumbos' most reliable singles player at 7-4, and Fleder were the only Jumbos to begin their matches ahead. Rubenstein and fellow senior tri-captain Ben Alexander turned around their first-set losses by taking the second, however, and as the captains were pushing their opponents deep into the courts, McCooey sealed the win by taking the second set, 6-4.
"Amherst fielded a full lineup for the first time all season and were tough," Fleder said. "Could we have beaten them? Of course. But I needed to win and I lost 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, and some other things needed to fall our way. I am playing well, but it just didn't happen [against Amherst]."
As the rest of the match unfolded, the Jumbos fell one by one to the nationally ranked competition. Rubenstein lost in three sets at number three and Alexander couldn't finish his match due to a recurring elbow injury. Roberts also lost his match in the top slot to Amherst captain Josh Rilla, who posted a first-round win in the NCAA Div. III singles championships last year. Roberts has stepped up to the challenge of the top spot this season, but fell short against the veteran Rilla.
"I tried to use my craft and speed to diffuse his power, but I could not win the big points," Roberts said.
On Friday, Tufts played a close match versus Colby at home, losing 4-3 in the first NESCAC loss of the long weekend.
"We would beat that team 80 percent of the time; it's just that things didn't go our way," Fleder said. "In all the other close matches this year, everything seemed to go in our direction - balls would dribble over the net, etc. For the first time, things didn't go our way. And in a close match, that was enough."
The Mules pulled out the crucial doubles point by defeating McCooey and Rubenstein at one and then just barely clinching the doubles point with a 9-7 win over Roberts and Gallin at two. Fleder and Keller were easily toppled by freshmen Alex Chin and Tim Fuhriman, 8-3, but the crucial doubles point had already gone to the Mules.
Five of the six singles matches went to three sets. Again at the top spot, this time facing sophomore Brody Saunders, Roberts easily won the first set 6-0 but couldn't keep up the momentum and lost the next two, 6-3, 6-4. Fleder had opposite results: He quickly dropped the first set, but battled back with a strong mental game to win the next two, 6-2, 6-1, to split the top two singles matches.
Alexander lost the first set at five and was winning the second when his opponent had to retire, giving the Jumbos their final win of the night. Rubenstein fell 6-3, 2-6, 4-6 at number three, and McCooey, who has the best singles record on the team at 10-5 this season, was out of character as he lost his close match to senior captain Ben Crane, 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 at the four spot.
This week the Jumbos have two non-conference matches back-to-back as they face Brandeis on Tuesday and Babson on Wednesday. While the wins won't count towards the team's league record, they could help the Jumbos regain some of their momentum from two 5-2 wins over Bowdoin and Wheaton last week.
