There were few surprises for the men's squash team this weekend.
In the last three seasons, Tufts has gone 7-0 against Conn. College and MIT combined, while falling to Williams twice. These records more or less maintained their form, as Tufts easily took care of both the Camels and the Engineers 9-0, but fell to the Ephs 8-1.
"I feel good about the weekend," senior tri-captain Jake Gross said. "We were expected to win on Friday and Sunday and we did so easily, which was encouraging. On Saturday we did everything we could and lost, but I still thought the weekend was a success."
Playing at No. 1 for Tufts, Gross turned in the highlight of the weekend, earning the lone victory against Williams and starting off the season 3-0.
Sunday, Tufts played the last of its three weekend matches, taking down MIT by a convincing 9-0 margin. MIT defaulted or retired at its No. 1 and No. 9 spots, but in the seven matches that were completed, Tufts swept six of them in three games. In the No. 4 through No. 8 spots, the Jumbos combined for 135 points, while the Engineers scored just two.
This lopsided match came just a day after the Jumbos' first lopsided defeat of the season. Though everyone but Gross lost their matches, the team was still upbeat about its performance.
"The team played much better in the loss," Gross said. "Even though we won all nine on Friday and Sunday we may not have played our best. We came out a bit hazy in the first match against [Conn. College], and we had some pre-match anxiety throughout the weekend. It is easier settling down against guys who have more experience than you, and I think we had altogether better matches against Williams."
Though Gross was the only one to emerge with a win, there were several other close matches, as his freshman brother Alex Gross fought a tight match at No. 2, keeping all four games close but falling 9-6, 6-9, 9-6, 9-5.
"The style in college is not too much different than before, but at the top of the ladder it is definitely more challenging," the younger Gross said. "I need to work on keeping the ball tight to the side wall and keeping mistakes down. Against Williams, I had a lot of unforced errors, which really killed me at times."
Meanwhile, Jake Gross took care of business in an hour-long four-game battle.
"It was a long, hard-fought match and I was pretty fortunate to pull it out in four," he said. "It was awesome having all the guys there to support me, since the crowd was definitely not in my favor."
Friday's 9-0 win played out just as Tufts expected; in the last five years Tufts has gone 8-0 against the Camels.
"It was difficult to get much of a test out of [the Conn. College match] because they were much weaker than us," coach Doug Eng said. "There were some jitters, but we didn't have many problems. We just went into the match with experience and mental toughness and left with a win."
The real tests will come for Tufts later in the season. Despite the lack of competitive matches, Eng is happy with the way his team is playing.
"Most teams will show improvement as the season goes on, and we hope that will happen," Eng said. "We are playing very well right now and we are sharper than a lot of other teams, but we will see how it goes match by match."
Despite the high level of play, the team must focus on starting its matches strong, especially when Tufts takes on Dartmouth Nov. 28.
"We need to establish ourselves earlier," he said. "When you fall behind early and lose the first two games, it's a pretty big hole to climb out of. Against teams like Dartmouth we need to set the tone early, let loose and not be so uptight in the first game."
