Entering the second half of its season with a starting lineup bolstered by the return of students from abroad, the men's squash team took two of three matches over the weekend, including a narrow 5-4 decision over Denison, improving its record to 4-6 and acquiring some momentum for the NESCAC this coming weekend.
After competing in November and December without veteran juniors Zach Bradley, Max Dalury and Scott Leighton, the No. 20-ranked Jumbos posted just two wins against five 9-0 losses with a relatively inexperienced roster. But thanks to the return of the three juniors, in concert with an effective winter break training regimen and a team training trip to the Cayman Islands, the squad took the court over the weekend with renewed confidence and vigor.
"I think people took squash seriously during the time that we were apart, and we got a huge lift out of having those three guys back, not just in the sense of playing a match, but in practice it's great because they are three talented guys who bring different styles and court identities that help everybody develop," senior tri-captain Brian Rassel said.
"Even though we had a break, we had our training trip in the [Caymans and] a fitness plan from the trainers and we had our own work-out plan as far as running and playing squash," senior tri-captain Josh Levinson added. "Just about everyone on the team stuck with the plan and really worked hard over break. Going into these matches, I feel that everyone did their part as far as preparation goes."
In competition on Saturday afternoon, the Jumbos breezed past NESCAC foe and traditional conference doormat Conn. College 8-1. Prior to that, the squad gutted out a hard fought 5-4 victory over the Denison Big Red, a team ranked just below Tufts at No. 21 in the national rankings. The Big Red, a program from Ohio that has rarely, if ever, been on the Jumbo's schedule, offered the team its first opportunity to dig deep and squeeze out a close win against a comparable school in a match hosted by Yale.
"As far as we know, we've never played Denison -- I think at least going back to the '80s, we've never had a match against them," Levinson said. "They're always ranked around where we are, so we knew it was going to be a tight match ... and during pre-match preparation we all had the mentality that we needed to win it."
In an apt example of the squad's newfound depth, Tufts swept the bottom of the ladder, claiming wins at Nos. 6 through 9. Meanwhile, sophomore Ben Rind, competing at No. 3, pulled off a remarkable comeback, winning 9-7 in the fifth and deciding set after falling behind early on by a score of 7-1 to his Big Red opponent, freshman Martin Prentice.
"That was one of the first matches played and we didn't realize at the time how big that was, but that happened in a lot of people's games; people would get down several points and then just come back and fight very hard," Levinson said. "In our past it's been disappointing because we've had matches where it'll be close and then we'd lose because of our fitness or because we weren't thinking properly, and to see it come together this early was a very proud moment for the team."
"We won with some of our, so to speak, least talented players winning at [Nos.] 9, 8, 7, 6 -- just guys who were ready to burn it out and work hard, and we had a great win at No. 3 out of Ben Rind," Rassel added. "It wasn't a skill win; it was a hard win, and that was huge for us."
And despite kicking off its January match play with a 9-0 loss against No. 16 Franklin and Marshall Friday, a match also played at Yale, Tufts feels ready for the challenges that other higher-ranked teams will pose later this season, especially given the reinforcement for its starting ladder. While the final composition of the lineup has not yet been determined, Bradley, Delury and Leighton will likely continue to play toward the middle of the lineup at Nos. 3, 4 and 5, allowing Rassel, Levinson and fellow tri-captain Chris Martin to compete at lower positions compared with the fall season's slate.
"Clearly [winning consistently] wasn't possible given the way Josh, Chris and I were losing while playing [Nos.] 3, 4, 5 or whatever it was this fall, and having the opportunity now to play 7, 8, 9 is pretty directly attributable to the lift these guys give us," Rassel said.
"Besides the fact that they're all great squash players and great people to have on the team, they are all juniors, so they have a lot of experience on the court, and it really helps give us a lot of depth," Levinson added.
The Jumbos will continue to exercise their revamped lineup this evening as they hit the road to compete at Northeastern. While the squad has easily brushed the Huskies aside the last four seasons, Rassel emphasized the importance of taking the opposition seriously.
"Northeastern is a really rising program at present," Rassel said. "For some reason their recruiting efforts have worked pretty well over the past two seasons, so it's nothing to take lightly, and we look at it as another great opportunity to go out and keep applying the character and principles that we want to develop going into the weekend [at NESCACs]."
