The men's squash team capped off regular-season competition on a less-than-ideal note, falling to the non-conference Brown Bears 8-1 on Tuesday night. The loss finalizes a sub-.500 record of 8-10, the Jumbos' first losing season in two years.
The nationally ranked No. 14 Bears broke a four-game losing streak with their win over Tufts, improving to a paltry 4-8 on the season. While the Jumbos have fallen to the Bears in many past showdowns, the loss was compounded by the memory of last year's closely-fought matchup in which Brown pulled ahead in the No. 9 game to take the win in the 5-4 decision. In this season's 8-1 slamming, No. 5 junior Zach Bradley picked up the team's sole win in three matches, going 9-5, 9-5, 9-2.
"My opponent was a really talented player," Bradley said. "It was one of my best matches of the season. In the first game, it was heated and the score was pretty close all the way through. I just had to buckle down at the end of that game and it paid off."
With strong performances through the middle of the lineup, many players on the Tufts squad extended matches into four or five games and played season-defining squash. No. 1 sophomore Alex Gross and No. 2 sophomore Ben Rind fought into four sets, with Rind winning his first match but unable to lock in his second consecutive win against Brown in his college career. Toward the middle of the lineup, No. 4 freshman Henry Miller and No. 6 junior Scott Leighton lost in four and five matches, respectively, as both Jumbos faced opponents with solid control of the court and strong shot placement tactics. In these matches of attrition, the Jumbos acknowledge the games could've gone differently while stressing the disconnect between their national ranking and their performance on the court.
"Scott Leighton had a great match, extending it into five games," Bradley said. "At the beginning of his game, he had his opponent running the court and he was hitting some nice drop shots, though his opponent was just an amazing retriever and his opponent took a 2-1 lead. Scott came out in the fourth game down 8-2 and battled back in probably one of the best comebacks of the season. The fifth game was a battle, but his opponent pulled out the win."
"We were looking to finish the regular season on the right foot," junior Max Dalury said. "We knew [Brown] was going to be a very difficult match going in. Brown has a very skilled team and had some pretty solid showings in matches earlier in the year. But our guys have played solid matches for the most part this season and we recognized their weak spots that we thought we could really capitalize on, but it just didn't go in our favor."
With regular season play concluded, the focus for Tufts now rests squarely on an extended break from dual matches before upcoming Nationals. While final team rankings due out next week will officially determine the breakdown for the tournament, the Jumbos remain fairly certain that they will remain in the third tier, where programs ranked Nos. 17-24 nationally will compete in an eight-team bracket.
Tufts expects to benefit from an uncharacteristically long respite from official competition leading up to Nationals, with renewed focuses on fitness, technique and recuperation from an otherwise busy second-semester match slate.
"In preparation for [Nationals] we've got some time," senior tri-captain Brian Rassel said. "We're going to really burn it out and ramp up the training aspect and make sure we're ready to play at the ultimate level ... We like it, separating ourselves from the melee ... right now we're going to play some more, get set [and] get comfortable in our positions ... That's a good situation for us, that's what we'd prefer since some of the fatigue is starting to show."
"I feel that we used this last match against Brown to work out some kinks and step up to the level of our opponents, and I think we have the perfect amount of time going into the end of this week to play some matches, do a lot of fitness, and bring back some basics a little bit," senior tri-captain Josh Levinson added. "Then next week, [get] into that mentality so when we head out on Thursday we're going to be ready to go."
Potential opposition for the Jumbos at Nationals will likely feature a slew of familiar faces including No. 17 Colby and No. 18 Bowdoin, who Tufts lost to by respective margins of 6-3 and 7-2, in addition to squads the Jumbos have defeated, like No. 21 Dension, No. 23 George Washington University and No. 24 Northeastern. In the end, seeing these types of schools again will almost certainly give the team an advantage should any rematches occur.
Last season the Jumbos finished the season ranked 18th after losing in the finals of the third tier at CSA Team Nationals to St. Lawrence despite entering the tournament as the bracket's top seed at No. 17. This time around, they will be one of the lower seeds, though the squad sees this as an opportunity to end the season with a marked improvement.
"Like any team, I think you have to try at least in your mind to expect the best to happen because our goal is to go in there and win the third flight trophy," Rassel said. "In our minds, that's completely reasonable considering that Colby is sitting at the [No.] 17 spot right now, and they convincingly beat us, but I don't think we feel like they're a better team than we are. I just think that there's a relative parity from us at the [No.] 22 spot to the [No.] 17 spot. I think we expect to finish better than 22nd-best in the country."
"This year, there is a lot of competition, and there are some teams out there who have gotten a lot better, but that said, I really feel that we're going to do some damage," Levinson added. "And there's one or two teams that we haven't played that we'd like to take down, and I'd really like to go into Nationals and take down a team that we've lost to ... That would make me very happy."
