After a 15-day hiatus following a loss to Colby March 10, the Jumbos bounced back Sunday with a marathon 5-2 victory over the Brandeis Owls in the squad's first home match of the season. The win advanced Tufts' record to 3-1 for the season, while Brandeis dropped to 4-5.
"Our team was ready," senior tri-captain Matt Gallin said. "We knew this was a big match, especially since they were coming off a big win over Bates. We didn't play our best match this year, but we played well enough to win."
"We came out real strong and we were ready today," senior tri-captain Sean McCooey said. "We were pretty pumped up, playing in our first home match of the season."
Because of the inclement weather Saturday night, the team opted to hold the match inside the Gantcher Center rather than outside on the Voute Courts.
"The projected forecast wasn't looking too good and we had to make a decision [that] morning, so we played inside," McCooey said. "We could have been outside, but we liked playing indoors since we've been playing in there all winter. It gives us a bit of an edge against opponents since those courts are so unique."
The Jumbos took the early 2-1 advantage in doubles to kick off the contest. Playing from No. 2 doubles, Gallin and junior Will Fleder dominated Brandeis seniors Adam Sher and Jordan Bieber 8-3, while senior tri-captain Corey Keller and freshman Jon Trott edged Owl sophomores Scott Schulman and Derek Tesser 9-7 from the third doubles slot.
At No. 1 doubles, the duo of McCooey and senior Geoff Loh suffered an 8-1 loss at the hands of Brandeis seniors Michael Vulfovich and Sam Jonas.
The singles action proved to be an even tougher test than doubles, but the Jumbos successfully displayed their ability to win the long ones. Of the four singles matches completed, Tufts won all three that went to three sets.
The longer matches were reminiscent of the Jumbos' 6-3 loss to Colby in which McCooey and Gallin both lost their three-set matches. This time, however, Tufts turned it around to pick up victories in all extended matches.
From No. 1, Fleder recovered from a first set loss to Vulfovich and battled to earn a hard-fought 5-7, 7-6 (6), 6-4 victory. Playing at the third slot, McCooey held on after capturing the first set and subsequently losing the second in a tiebreaker before notching the 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-2 win over Sherr.
"I was exhausted," McCooey said. "But I knew it was a big match, so I went out there and gave it my best."
Gallin's singles match at the fourth spot proved a true physical challenge, as he battled cramps in the third set against Bieber before emerging victorious with marks of 6-3, 4-6, and 6-4.
"I might have been slightly dehydrated," Gallin said. "I started cramping at 2-2 in the third, and it got worse with each game, but I was able to keep running and stay in it. I was down 4-3 and then played the best three games of the match while I was cramping. I went for big shots because I couldn't run as well and came up with some big points in the end to win those last three games."
The lone loss at singles came from Keller, who surrendered a narrow two-set match 6-4, 7-6 (2) to Jonas. The fifth and sixth singles matches did not finish due to lighting problems in Gantcher.
Since Tufts had already won the five games necessary to clinch the match, the match was concluded before freshman Andrew Rosen finished his No. 5 match and senior Craig Kunke's No. 6 match.
"At [No.] 5 we were up 5-1 and [No.] 6 had just started," Gallin said. "We felt confident we were going to take both of those, since we're strong at five and six."
Poor weather on March 16 and March 17 prevented Tufts from competing against MIT and Middlebury, respectively, leading to the extended 15-day period without intercollegiate matches. While the remainder of the MIT match was postponed after the Jumbos went up 2-1 at the end of doubles competition, the Middlebury match will likely not be rescheduled due to NCAA regulations.
"We're only allowed to play a certain number of days, and we would have to schedule [Middlebury] on the same day as another team," Gallin said.
Despite not competing in dual matches for over two weeks, the squad made good use of spring break, traveling west to Puerto Vallarta to train outdoors in preparation for the remainder of the season.
"We played in some hot weather, which was good for our conditioning," Gallin said. "It was also good for team bonding and team chemistry."
The squad now looks ahead to Thursday's away match against the Conn. College Camels. When the Jumbos and Camels last met in 2005, Tufts pounded out a 7-0 victory, and expects a similar outcome this time around.
"They're an easy win and we have two really tough matches over the weekend, so we're really gearing up for the weekend against Bates and Williams," Gallin said. "We're headed toward the meat of our schedule during the next two weeks."
"In the past [Conn. College has] had a pretty weak team," McCooey said. "We have a lot of guys at six, seven, eight, and nine battling for that sixth spot in the singles lineup, so we might try and get them in against Conn. College, but at the same time we don't want to end up losing. We're going to go in with confidence especially after winning today."
