The men's tennis team returns to action this Saturday after emerging from a brief fall schedule that saw the team go 2-0. And right off the bat, the Jumbos will be faced with a crucial matchup against Colby tomorrow.
Captain Will Fleder will step into the leadership role as the lone senior on a team comprised of more than three-quarters underclassmen. Fleder holds the No. 1 singles spot, but the other five soloists are freshmen and sophomores.
"Will, if he remains healthy, has a good chance of winning a lot of his matches," coach Doug Eng said. "We need him."
Fleder, who went 5-3 in duals last year and is 24-22 in his career, looks at the team and sees talent in the other young singles players.
"[Freshman] Jake Fountain is at third singles, and we have extremely high expectations for him," Fleder said. "[Sophomore] Andrew Rosen is playing four, and he was great last year. He's a great match player. He played five then, but we think he's more than capable of playing four this year. [Sophomores] Jon Trott and Bryan Wilner are five and six. They're both new, and both have really good talent and are steady."
The Jumbos head into the spring season nationally ranked at No. 21 and are hoping they can improve on some strong showings this past fall. Fountain had an impressive showing in the fall campaign, winning both his singles matches in Tufts' head-to-head victories over Salve Regina and Babson and making the semifinals of the Wallach Invitational. Rosen, along with freshmen Tony Carucci and Jared Glick, have also impressed at singles, as none of the three dropped a set in match play during the fall.
The Jumbos will play three matches before spring break and then travel to Florida for matches in Orlando and Miami.
"We have four matches during break, two here and two there," Eng said. "If we lose them here, it'll probably be a miserable trip. If they go well, we'll be smiling on the way to Florida."
Eng is optimistic about the season if the team stays healthy. He's been working with the doubles teams on staying aggressive, and he believes that the depth the Jumbos hold at second and third doubles will be crucial in matches.
"We're pretty happy with our doubles," Eng said. "They're playing pretty solid, and we're letting them get gelled. They're pretty aggressive, but things of course could always get a little better."
Eng has also been working on the team with service placement, staying aggressive on returns and ground strokes, and recognizing second serves.
Last year, the Jumbos finished at a 6-9 record, including a 4-3 loss to Colby. The Jumbos host the Mules on Saturday as they see their first NESCAC competition of the year.
"In the NESCAC, all the competition is stiff," Eng said. "There are about seven or eight teams that could be ranked top-20 in the country. Every team we play, we're going to be in a battle. Home court advantage is huge, and the teams we have to do well against are MIT, Bowdoin and Colby, who we play at home."
"The teams for us to beat are Colby, Bates and Bowdoin," Fleder added. "Those are our main goals. All three are competitive, and we've struggled with them in different years. We beat Bowdoin and lost to Bates last year, and beat Colby the year before. If we beat those teams we can look forward to a good year."
The talent at the top of the NESCAC can be attributed to a "success breeds success" philosophy in school sports such as tennis, as evidenced by Middlebury's four consecutive conference titles. The conference holds six nationally ranked teams, as well as four ranked singles players and doubles teams apiece.
"We, as a team, have different strengths and weaknesses," Fleder said. "We need to stay in points and be scrappy. Teams may have more talent, but in past we've beat those teams. We need to keep these traits."
