After a narrow 5-4 April 7 loss at the hands of Bowdoin that saw several players go down with various ailments, the men's tennis team bounced back 10 days later to overcome the Wheaton Lyons 5-3 on the road Tuesday.
With the win, Tufts improved its record to 7-3 on the year and ended a six-game Wheaton winning streak, dropping the Lyons to 9-3 overall.
"It felt really good," senior tri-captain Sean McCooey said. "After the Bowdoin match we had more than a week off so we were kind of in a lull, and we had a lot of injured players so we were trying to rest everyone up. [The win] was definitely good for our confidence, though."
Once again, the Jumbos reaffirmed the importance of winning two of three doubles matches, capturing the No. 1 and No. 3 doubles contests to aid in the winning effort. Of their seven wins, six have come when they led after doubles play.
McCooey and senior Geoff Loh teamed up once again at No. 1 and took down Wheaton seniors captain Payum Payman and Brad Dressler 8-6. The Jumbos' second doubles win came at the third spot, when senior tri-captain Corey Keller and freshman Jon Trott downed senior Will Stoddard and freshman James Little 8-5.
"We've been working on our doubles all year," McCooey said. "It really sets the tone for the match. Going into singles being up 2-1 or even 3-0 really changes the dynamics of the match. Hopefully we can keep up our momentum and our success."
"For a variety of reasons, getting two out of three doubles always seems to be a precursor to victory," senior tri-captain Matt Gallin said. "No. 1 and No. 3 doubles have been really solid all year long, and our doubles in general have been much better compared to past years."
The duo of Gallin and junior Will Fleder, who is still nursing an injured hip, took the loss for Tufts at doubles, falling 8-2 to Lyon seniors Brian Danishevsky and Raymour Radhakrishnan, leaving the Jumbos up 2-1 heading into singles.
While Fleder normally plays at the top of the singles ladder, coach Doug Eng decided to rest his star's hip and move everyone up a spot in the singles lineup. Despite the absence of their best singles player, Tufts still took three of five completed singles matches, a testament to the depth of the Jumbo roster.
"We rested Will after taking two of the three doubles in preparation for the bigger match against Amherst, which didn't end up happening [yesterday]," Gallin said. "We knew who we were up against and we knew we were the better team. We rolled the dice in sitting Will out after winning two of the doubles, but singles stepped it up and it paid off; that shows that we can put an extra guy or two in there and hold our own against one of these teams."
Because of rain on Tuesday, Tufts and Wheaton played on the Lyons' indoor courts. While competing as a visitor on a foreign interior surface can prove troublesome to some teams, the Jumbos took it in stride and negated any home court advantage Wheaton might have had.
"We had heard of them being a little more challenging than they were, but we went out there and played our game and were as consistent as possible," McCooey said. "In the end, home court wasn't a factor in the match."
Meanwhile yesterday's NESCAC finale against Amherst on the Voute Courts was postponed due to inclement weather. In cases like this earlier in the season Tufts had played its opponents inside the Gantcher Center, but Amherst requested the match take place at a later date outside.
"I don't want anything to seem unfair, and some people view home court advantage on an indoor surface as unfair," Eng said. "I personally do not think it is that big an advantage, since we recently beat Wheaton on their indoor courts. Sometimes you initially feel the effects of home court advantage, but when you are an hour and a half into a tight match, the courts do not determine who wins and loses."
Tufts has won all three of its indoor matches this season, including Tuesday's win over Wheaton. Its other two triumphs occurred at home against Brandeis March 25 and against Trinity April 3.
The next few days present a busy schedule for the squad, which will complete the singles portion of its match against MIT today after taking two of three doubles March 16, followed by a Saturday home match against Boston University. The Amherst match is tentatively scheduled for Monday to close out the regular season, but it may not take place at all. Either way, the result of the match will prove relatively unimportant with respect to the NESCAC tournament.
"The match against Amherst is not of much consequence, as we are seeded [No.] 4 and [No.] 5 in [the] NESCAC and no matter who wins we will face each other again in the tournament," Eng said.
