The women's squash team scored an 8-1 victory over regional rival Wellesley on Wednesday, gaining a measure of confidence in its final regular-season match, even as its postseason fate remains somewhat unclear.
Last week, the College Squash Association (CSA) shocked several teams, the Jumbos included, when it re-released its rankings. A logjam between the No. 13 and No. 17 spots - spanning a crucial dividing line that separates those teams bound for the B-Division and those relegated to the C Division - was unscrambled and Tufts, which had fallen to No. 17, was back in the hunt for a B-Division finish.
The Jumbos had moved above NESCAC rival Amherst to squeak in at No. 16, the final B Division spot. While Amherst had the right to appeal the decision, it was not clear at press time whether it has done so.
The final Howe Cup rankings will be released on Monday, but coach Doug Eng said he was "90 to 95 percent sure" that the Jumbos were headed to the B Division next weekend.
"There are no grounds to change the rankings, because there really haven't been many important matches this week," Eng said. "Unless the committee changes its mind again, which I think is unlikely, we should stay where we are."
While the temptation to look ahead to the release of Monday's final rankings was understandable, the now-No. 16 Jumbos rolled over No. 21 Wellesley on Wednesday. The Jumbos won the top eight matches, six in straight games and two marathon five-gamers from sophomore Stefanie Marx at No. 3 and junior Caroline Choi at No. 8.
"The Wellesley win will give us a nice momentum going into Howe Cup," senior co-captain and No. 1 Rebecca Rice said. "Tough five- and four-gamers are good because we'll have a lot of them at Howe Cup. We had one more chance to see places that we can improve, and now we have a week to go back and do that. A week and a half can make a big difference."
"We like to end [the regular season] with a win and we knew we were much stronger than Wellesley," Eng said. "I thought going in that they could give us a little trouble at a couple positions in the middle of the ladder. Stefanie went to five [at No. 3], but we played very well four through six."
Marx outlasted junior No. 3 Caroline Tall in five games. After a dominating 9-3 win in the first game, Marx traded wins with Tall in games two and three before very nearly wrapping up the win in game four. But Tall escaped with a 10-9 win in game four and pushed the match to five games before Marx turned in a solid 9-4 win in the fifth.
With senior co-captain Micela Leis and freshman Margaret Fisher both missing, the Jumbos had some new faces at the bottom third of the ladder. Choi and freshman Allie Dempsey, usually the team's No. 9 and No. 10, respectively, each played two spots up, and sophomore Erin Bruynell, No. 13 on the ladder, made her Tufts debut at No. 9.
"We put in a 7-8-9 that we don't usually play," Eng said. "[Wellesley's] No. 7 was really quite good - Caroline had her hands full and took her to five. Allie controlled the left wall very well; she's a lefty and a lot of people don't know how to play lefties."
The Jumbos were not the only team playing shorthanded, and the Blue had the shorter end of the stick. Wellesley was without sophomore Sarah Odell, who has played all but one match this season at the No. 1 spot. Senior Ayako Kubodera, normally No. 2, stepped up to face Rice. Kubodera fell in straight games, and the upward movement of the entire ladder was not kind to the Blue.
The Jumbos have beaten Wellesley every year since 2002-2003, and they felt confident going into the match against the lower-ranked Blue.
"It's very easy to play down when you're the better team," Eng said. "You have to focus on playing your own game and not play down to their level. The challenge is staying focused and never letting a lapse happen, and I think we did that well."
With the Wellesley win behind them, the Jumbos now will wait for the CSA's final Howe Cup rankings. Making the B Division has been a key goal of the 2007-2008 team, and it became a reality after a perfect December that included wins over Bowdoin and Amherst.
Last season, with Rice abroad and several of its members missing, Tufts made the C Division and took a seven-player roster to the Howe Cup, where it went 1-2 and finished the season 8-16.
"If we make B Division, we have nowhere to go but up," Rice said. "If we go to the C Division, we can only go down from 17. It's also not as exciting to re-beat teams you've already beaten during the season. We want the opportunity to beat teams we lost close matches to already this season."
