After trekking up to Waterville, Maine for the first match-up of the 2007 season, the men's tennis team had a little trouble shaking off the cobwebs, falling to Colby 6-3.
With new NESCAC rules taking effect, the three doubles matches were played first, each counting for one point, and were followed by six singles matches, also counting for one point.
That scoring change hurt the Jumbos, who went 0-for-3 in the doubles portion of the event.
The Jumbos' top doubles pair, of senior tri-captain Sean McCooey and senior Geoff Loh, were ranked nationally as a doubles team two years ago; however, despite their experience playing together, they dropped their first match 8-6.
In the second doubles match-up, junior Will Fleder and senior tri-captain Corey Keller faced-off against Mule sophomores Alex Chin and Tim Fuhriman in a duel that went down to the wire, with the Jumbos eventually succumbing to their opponents in the tiebreaker 7-4.
"I just did not heat up and play my best in the doubles," Fleder said.
In the third doubles slot, freshman Jon Trott and senior tri-captain Matt Gallin paired up for the first time. Though the two Jumbos played a solid match, the Colby duo of senior Tom Gildersleeve and junior Zach Schuman was simply too much to handle.
"We played all right," Trott said. "They just were stronger doubles players than us."
The sub-par doubles play landed Tufts in a 3-0 hole heading into singles play, putting pressure on the singles play to win five of the six games in order to emerge with a team victory. While several Jumbos turned in strong performances in the singles portion, it wasn't enough, as a 3-3 split translated into a 6-3 match loss.
At No. 1 for Tufts, Fleder battled to a three-set victory over his opponent, Colby junior Brody Saunders. Playing No. 2 singles, Colby sophomore Bryan Brown rolled to a swift two-set victory over Keller.
Tufts came close, but couldn't pull out victories at the third and fourth singles spots, as McCooey lost a close match 7-5, 4-6, 7-5, and at No. 4, Gallin returned from his fall season injury only to endure a heartbreaking loss in a third-set tiebreaker. After taking the first set, Gallin lost the next two and ultimately the match, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6.
Fifth and sixth singles were the brightest spots for Tufts, as the two victories on the bottom of the ladder kept the match close.
Freshman Andrew Rosen took down his opponent in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3, followed closely by senior Craig Kunkes, who also recorded a convincing straight-set win, 6-3, 6-4.
"Everybody played really well in singles," Fleder said. "We just didn't perform up to par in the doubles. We absolutely cannot let this poor doubles play turn into a trend."
With the win, Colby moved to 2-0 on the year. The loss was the first of the year for the Jumbos, after they took dual match victories over Babson and Salve Regina in the fall season.
Though the Jumbos' margin of defeat was convincing, the match was decided almost entirely by the poor doubles play, something they will be working on before their match at MIT on Friday and the much-anticipated home opener against Middlebury on Saturday.
"We felt like we gave them a little gift," Fleder said. "I think we were the stronger team, and we just need to play better doubles to prove that."
"We are trying to become more aggressive and move towards a consistent serve and volley game in doubles," Trott said.
