When the College Squash Association posted the highly-anticipated bracket for the Howe Cup on Tuesday night, much of the buzz surrounded the No. 16-No. 17 cutoff line. The former would be the last team to make the B Division, while the latter would be relegated to the C Division, a much weaker draw in the top-heavy world of women's college squash.
A pair of New England teams - Tufts and Amherst - had both made strong cases for the final B-Division spot. They split their two regular-season matches and flip-flopped in the rankings several times during the past few weeks. Both had staked the success of their seasons on a spot in the B Division.
In other words, it was not a good time for a typo.
But that's exactly what happened when an innocent but significant error in the online posting gave Amherst the coveted slot on Tuesday night.
With the error since corrected, the Jumbos are right where they thought they could be back in November, when several big wins early suggested that this season was different than the two before it: headed to Princeton, N.J. as the 16th-ranked team in the country, with nowhere to go but up.
"We're very excited to be in the B division, and we also feel like we deserve it," senior co-captain Micela Leis said. "We've [split] with Amherst, but we've done better against other teams than they have, and I think we're the better team. We thought we should have been here all along."
It is the Jumbos' first trip to the B Division since the 2004-05 season, when Leis and co-captain Rebecca Rice, the team's only seniors, were freshmen. Tufts finished 22nd last year after entering the Howe Cup at No. 20, and 23rd in the 2005-06 season after entering at No. 21.
As the lowest seed in the eight-team draw, the Jumbos face an uphill battle, a fact not lost on the team as it headed to Princeton yesterday afternoon. Their first-round opponent is Williams, the top seed in the B Division and 9-0 victor over Tufts back in November. The second round will bring either No. 12 Bowdoin or No. 13 Bates, which are a combined 3-1 against Tufts this season.
The Jumbos will need to be at their best throughout the ladder to even keep their early matches competitive, much less make an upset bid. Tufts' last three matches against Bates and Bowdoin have been 8-1, 8-1 and 9-0 losses. But the individual matches have been closer than expected; Rice has won at No. 1 twice, shutouts were rare, and several Jumbos pushed their opponents to four or more games.
"We've been talking about never giving up, not getting down and knowing that you can win it," Rice said. "We have a really strong ladder and when certain positions win, like the No. 1, 4 or 5, it shows that we can pull through with some wins."
But coach Doug Eng cautioned that upsets are unlikely in women's squash, perhaps the NCAA's most top-heavy sport, and the one with the least parity between closely-ranked teams.
"Whether it's Bates or Bowdoin, the first two rounds are going to be tough," Eng said. "Squash isn't like sports like basketball or football, where major upsets can happen. If we played Williams 100 times, we might lose 100 times. It's not that we're not a good team. That's just how it is."
Instead, the Jumbos have set more realistic goals this weekend. A competitive second-round match would keep the team sharp heading into the third round, where a win over either No. 14 Colby or No. 15 Hamilton would ensure a bump in the final rankings.
"Mainly, our goal as a team is just to move up," Leis said. "We know that playing Williams is going to be really tough, but toward the end of the weekend, we'll have some matches that are challenging but definitely winnable."
The most crucial of those matches will be the team's third-round match against Colby or Hamilton. Either team is beatable - the Jumbos lost shorthanded to Hamilton 6-3 and by the same score to Colby two weeks ago - but they are itching for a rematch with the Continentals.
"If we do end up playing Hamilton, it's a second shot at a winnable match," Eng said. "You don't get a second shot every time."
Either way, the Jumbos can end the weekend no worse than they started it. Tufts cannot finish below 16th, making its jump from 22nd last year the biggest single-year improvement of any team in the nation.
That mentality, according to Eng, may inspire an edgier style in his players, who will be challenged from start to finish this weekend.
"When you're playing up, you have nothing to lose," Eng said. "You just have to go out and play five percent better, hit the ball five percent harder, think a little more on the court. You can go out and try things that you haven't tried before - go for that ball, take a chance.
"In the beginning of the season, they didn't realize how good they could be," he continued. "After they knocked off Bowdoin, Middlebury and Amherst, they realized they were in it. It's about realizing your potential, and that's what we're trying to do this weekend."
