While the beginning of every collegiate sports season almost inevitably coincides with a period of transition and adjustment --- new players learn the ropes and the veterans sort out new starting roles -- the men's squash team is feeling a much more acute sense of this period of change and uncertainty.
When the Jumbos, ranked No. 19 in the College Squash Association (CSA) preseason poll, take the court today against national No. 1 Trinity for the first of five matches in a busy opening weekend, just two of their starters from last season's squad will be competing on the ladder. Only sophomores Alex Gross and Ben Rind return, leaving the remaining seven spots open to first-year recruits and upperclassmen who have seen limited competition thus far in their careers.
Indeed, the end of the 2007-08 campaign saw the departure of former tri-captain Jake Gross (LA '08), the No. 1 starter essentially from the moment he arrived on campus as a freshman in 2004, who broke the career wins record with a 53-21 effort across four years and ended his run for the Jumbos ranked No. 32 individually in the nation.
Gross' departure, coupled with the graduation of two other starting seniors Nelson Schubart (LA '08) and Kris Leetavorn (LA '08), and the absence of four starting juniors -- Zach Bradley, Max Dalury, Scott Leighton and John Subranni -- due to studying abroad, leaves a vacuum at numerous points throughout the ladder. As such, the fall portion of the Jumbos' season will focus much more on gaining experience through match play rather than shooting for overall team victories.
"[Missing seven starters from last season] obviously puts a dent in our talent lineup going into our fall matches which start this weekend, but basically, to get around that, you have to deal with what you're left with," senior tri-captain Brian Rassel said. "We've scheduled some of our extremely hard matches for the fall, starting out with Trinity, and then we also put some that we consider less competitive for us, hoping we could get some wins in the fall, waiting for a lot of those [abroad] guys to return this winter."
"The way I think that our coach [Doug Eng] organized our matches was that he put matches that we don't usually have a whole lot of opportunity to win in the fall, because if we're not going to win anyway, we might as well use them almost as exhibition matches, just to get people used to playing at a higher level," senior tri-captain Chris Martin said. "Everyone is going to have to step up this year, so it will be really good to get people to realize where they are, what they need to work on, because when you're playing an opponent that's much better than you, it's easier to see where your flaws are."
Admittedly, the team expects to see a dip in terms of its regular season record this fall as the first-years acclimate to the program. And while Martin and Rassel agreed that the rookies have a lot to learn between now and the more important spring portion of the season, the autumn contests should give them key match experience, enabling all nine starting competitors to play without concerns of winning or losing.
"I think our goal in the fall semester is really just to get the freshmen up to speed because they are going to be the bottom of the ladder in the spring as well, and at this point they obviously have a lot to work on, and they've already made great progress so far," Martin said. "As far as I can see, since we don't have a whole lot of schools to shoot for in the fall, we're really focusing on bringing individuals up to speed so that by the time the spring comes and we have a full cohesive team then, everyone will be able to play competitively and we'll be able to move together as a unit."
"We had a solid recruiting class, but more than anything they've all turned out to be great hard workers, which has been the hallmark coming into this season," Rassel added. "Because with those guys abroad and after graduating the three seniors from last year who were all starters, on the technical side we might not be as strong as we were before, but we're definitely compensating."
While there will be seven players in the starting lineup for the fall segment of the winter season who are either brand-new to collegiate competition or have served in roles more akin to alternates in the past, the key position at No. 1 on the ladder will change hands, though the last name remains the same. Alex Gross, Jake's younger brother, competed at second spot all last season as a freshman and will take over for his elder sibling for the 2008-09 campaign as the squad's best.
"Jake was a pretty special player, obviously, probably one of the best to ever play here," Rassel said. "But his brother is definitely filling that role. His brother had the advantage of watching Jake last season, seeing what being the No. 1 player was all about, so he's stepping up and filling those shoes now, and leading the team in that respect as our best player and also leading the team in terms of experience and what he can lend in terms of squash know-how ... obviously there's a reason he's No. 1."
Because of Jake Gross' reliability at the top of the ladder -- he posted a 17-2 mark last season -- Tufts will have to alter its strategy some to overcome the dropoff at the No. 1 slot.
"During matches, Jake was always the 'Okay, we're going to have No. 1 win,' almost every match, so now it's going to be a very different style of play," Martin said. "It's going to be a very different strategy; we're going to try to probably take over the middle and lower and have the middle be our main winning section."
Looking ahead to the Jumbos' busy five-match weekend, first on the agenda is the country's best in Trinity, a team that has won 144 consecutive matches and is a nine-time national champion. The road doesn't get much easier after that, with a pair of matchups tomorrow against No. 9 Dartmouth and No. 12 Navy in Hanover, N.H., followed by a relief match in the form of No. 35 Vanderbilt, before the squad finishes up by battling a No. 10 Williams team in a set of contests played at Harvard.
"We're going to be under pressure from the best players in the country, so you can take that a lot of ways and try and grow your own game, whether it be working on how you play defensively or how you play retrieving, or whether you see how you can put players who are better than you under pressure by being aggressive," Rassel said.
