The women's squash team walked away from its season-opening weekend with a split of two matches against NESCAC opponents.
On Friday, the Jumbos opened with an encouraging 6-3 win over Connecticut College before losing 9-0 to Williams on Saturday.
"I think it was great to start off with a win," senior co-captain Micela Leis said. "Even though we didn't get the victory against Williams, everyone played hard. It showed the increased depth and talent that we have this year."
Adding to the difficulty of playing Williams, a program that finished last season ranked No. 6 in the country, was the absence of senior tri-captain and No. 1 player Rebecca Rice, who was forced to retire from Friday's match against Connecticut College with an injury.
"We knew that it was going to be a tough match with or without Rebecca," Leis said. "But we went in determined to play our best, and everyone did. Everyone played exceptionally well, but Williams was much stronger than we had even anticipated."
Although Tufts failed to improve on last year's performance against the Ephs in terms of games won, the team felt a tangible difference between the team's performances this year and last. Freshman Valerie Koo, playing No. 4 on the ladder, came closest to procuring a game for Tufts when she lost her first game by just two points before losing 9-1 and 9-2 in the following games.
"We really improved compared to last year," Herrmann said. "We won a lot more points and we fought for every point."
For the Jumbos, getting the season off to a positive start against Connecticut College in a match played at Belmont Hill School was key to washing away the taste of last season's 8-16 record. In 2006, the Tufts squad started the season 0-4 and coach Doug Eng's squad was hoping to showcase better play early on in its first matches.
Tufts exhibited its depth by winning all the No. 4 through No. 9 matches after the top of the Jumbos' lineup struggled. Senior co-captain Micela Leis dominated her opponent at No. 7, not losing a point the entire match, and Hermann allowed her opponent just one point during her match at No. 6. Fellow junior Simone Grant, playing in the eighth spot, swept the first two games 9-0 before giving up two points in the final, but still won convincingly.
"The win improved our morale," Herrmann said. "We have a lot of new girls and it showed them the competition we're up against. We lost 5-4 to them last year so it shows us where we stand this year."
"The middle of our lineup has really improved," junior Victoria Barba added. "It helps knowing we can go out and get a win. Everyone gave it their all and there was a lot of heart out there."
Despite the optimism, the players know they have plenty of things to work on in practice.
"We have a lot of new players at the bottom of our lineup and it's really helping us," Barba said. "We're working on our tactics so that we get the basics down and don't have to think about them, especially during a match."
"We're working on our movement and our shots, trying to really control and put a lot of thought into where we hit our shots so we don't hit them back to our opponents," Herrmann added.
Next up for Tufts is an away match against Dartmouth College on Nov. 28 and the Boston Shoot Out Tournament the following weekend.
"Dartmouth is similar to Williams," Herrmann said. "It will be tough because it's far away and it's midweek. It will be great to play the [Shoot Out] tournament in Boston because there should be close competition and there's a good chance we'll be able to have a van take some fans to our matches."
"We always go into Dartmouth thinking it's going to be a big challenge, but it's usually closer than we think," Barba added. "Last year I had a match that went four games."
Tim Judson contributed reporting to this article.
