The men's squash team faced off against Dartmouth Wednesday night and discovered why the Big Green are considered one of the best collegiate programs in the country.
Dartmouth took the match 7-2 behind wins from all of its top seven players. The Big Green are now a perfect 3-0 against non-Ivy League opponents.
"We kind of expected this," Tufts coach Doug Eng said. "We are even with Dartmouth at the lower half, and I am not surprised we got a couple of wins. Whenever you travel two hours to a team's home court, you cannot be too disappointed with the results. We would have liked to see a 6-3 match, and I think that would have turned some heads, but this result was not a surprise."
Despite the loss, the Jumbos gave Dartmouth some trouble at the bottom half of the ladder with sophomore Zach Bradley and freshman Ben Rind scraping out wins at No. 8 and No. 9 respectively.
At the top, senior tri-captain Jake Gross engaged in a back-and-forth match against Big Green junior Andrew Boumford. Gross took two of the first three games and was ahead 7-5 in the fourth, but he could not hold the lead and fell in five games, 5-9, 9-7, 5-9, 9-7, 9-5.
"This match was just a heartbreaker," Eng said. "He wants to be All-American, and this would have been a very important win. He controlled the whole match, and he had it in his grasp in the fourth game. He was up in all the games, but the lead just slipped away."
"Jake put in a great effort against a tough opponent," said sophomore Max Dalury, who dropped his match in straight sets at No. 7. "He was under the weather but still had a very good performance."
The teams last faced each other in 2005, and this match was incredibly reminiscent of that one, which ended with a match score of 7-2 in favor of Dartmouth. In that match, Gross once again went five games with Boumford before losing 3-2, and once again, Gross won two of the first three games. Similarly, in 2005, Tufts received the two points from the bottom third of the lineup, at No. 7 and No. 8.
Bradley and Rind each took care of their opponents in four games, winning the last of those games 9-0.
"Both Zach and Ben retrieve well, and they use a good straight game," Eng said. "They really don't make many mistakes, so it is tough to play against them."
Elsewhere in the lineup, Tufts struggled considerably, since five of the remaining six matches were decided in Dartmouth's favor in just three games.
Tufts will face another difficult test tomorrow in the Boston Shootout. The Jumbos are set to take on Bowdoin, a team that twice beat the Jumbos last year, both times by a 5-4 margin.
"Bowdoin is one of biggest matches of the year," Dalury said. "If we could beat them, it would be one of the biggest wins in school history. It is a home match and just a tremendous opportunity for us. If we can win, we can really put our problems from last year in the past and be recognized on the national level."
The 2-2 Jumbos will take on Middlebury and Northeastern to round out their busy schedule this weekend. Following the weekend's Shootout, they finish out their fall semester with a Thursday night match against Amherst. The Lord Jeffs just opened their season Wednesday night, cruising to an 8-1 win over Northeastern.
