The men's tennis team traveled to Williamstown, Mass. for the ITA Regional Tournament this weekend with just four players, only one of whom played in the top four during the Salve Regina match last week.
Up against the top competition in the Northeast, the four active Jumbos struggled greatly in both doubles and singles.
Tufts' lone victory in the three-day tournament was an impressive one, as it came from the newly paired doubles team of sophomore Daniel Landers and freshman Tony Carucci.
The duo faced off in the first round of the single-elimination bracket against the first doubles team from Colby, junior Brian Brown and freshman Michael Johnsen. Brown has been a top player for Colby for the past two years and made it to the quarterfinals of the singles bracket this weekend. The Tufts pair pulled out the narrow victory 8-6 to advance to the second round of doubles.
Landers and Carucci had not played together before this weekend, but coach Doug Eng saw similarities in their playing styles and paired them for the tournament.
"Tony and Dan are both very aggressive doubles players and they worked well together," Eng said. "They did pretty well to beat a solid Colby team."
"[Carucci] did a good job getting me focused," Landers said. "It could have gone either way, but a couple breaks of serve helped us take it. We were hitting a high percentage of first serves in, and we were able to kill points quicker."
In the next round, Landers and Carucci fell to the momentum-driven Amherst pair of seniors Jeff Wan and Geoff Schwartz, who had just beaten the top doubles team from Trinity in the first round. The two Jumbos failed to bring the same intensity they did in the prior match, falling 8-4.
"I think we underestimated them a bit," Landers said. "We were caught by surprise and we shouldn't have been. It was just a lack of focus."
Other than the doubles win, the team had little to be happy about over the weekend. The main problem was that about half of the starting lineup was unable to attend. Senior captain and top seed Will Fleder was unable to play due to a nagging quad injury, while sophomore Jon Trott and freshman Jake Fountain, who played No. 2 and No. 4 singles respectively last week, had family engagements.
This absence of top players forced Eng to mix and match doubles teams and to field singles players in higher positions than they were used to.
Sophomore Andrew Rosen played both singles and doubles, but lost both of his first-round matches against strong opponents. He faced Williams sophomore Nick Lebedoff, and fell in straight sets 7-5, 6-1. However, Eng saw potential and promise in the match.
"Andrew had a battle with [Lebedoff]," Eng said. "He is moving well and hitting the ball harder than he used to. He is more aggressive and he has kept that consistency."
Rosen also teamed with sophomore Brian Wilner in a doubles match against a top doubles team of senior Garrett Gates and freshman Stephen Sullivan of Bowdoin, who made it to the semifinals of the tournament, and dropped the first-rounder 8-1.
Wilner also played a singles match against Bowdoin sophomore Jamie Neely, losing in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4.
"I would say I played pretty well, but I just made too many errors this weekend," Wilner said.
"Brian just has to get out the cobwebs," Eng said. "He came out slow in singles, but in the second set, he tried to do more with the ball and use his big solid shot, and he had a very nice second set."
Wilner saw bright spots from the team's performance, but areas for improvement as well.
"The whole team really just needs to work on fitness. That is the one defining factor - everyone is able to hit the ball well, but we need to gain that commitment to staying in the point longer than our opponents."
Despite the lack of encouraging results for the Jumbos at the ITA Regonals this year, Eng is not concerned. He feels as though the individual tournament is not an important one for a variety of reasons.
"The tournament really just shows the tip of the iceberg, but that is not what is important," Eng said. "Our team is built on depth, and we rely on wins from the four, five and six spots. This tournament does not test depth, but only how good is the team's best player."
Eng feels very strongly about his squad, as he believes that they are even more solid and deeper in the positions that count this year, and stronger in doubles as well. The tournament did give Eng a chance to scout out the competition for this season.
"Williams looks like the team to beat this year," Eng said. "But Bowdoin will give them an interesting match. For us this season, I think a lot of the results will come down to home-court advantage."
