Men's Squash | Jumbos mull over 6-3 loss to Mules in NESCAC Tournament

    For the men's squash team, the weekend's NESCAC tournament acted as a benchmark to measure progress of an otherwise less-than-stellar season. Indeed, the Jumbos suffered their first-ever exit from the tourney during the opening round at the hands of the Colby Mules, ending a three-year run of quarterfinal appearances by the Tufts squad.
    The No. 9-seeded Mules' 6-3 trampling of the eighth-seeded Jumbos at Trinity marked the end of a three-game winning streak for a team that has struggled to find its rhythm. Despite the outcome, a Colby victory over Tufts for the first time in four seasons, the Jumbo squad cites its overall performance as indicative of its potential.
    "Colby was a pretty tough squad, and we didn't particularly match up well with them," junior Scott Leighton said. "We were prepared for the match, evidenced by the few matches that went into four or five games. They just didn't go our way in the end. The final score doesn't exactly represent the end result because we lost two matches in five and fought some matches into four sets. Overall, I don't think we played badly."
    The Jumbos picked up wins by sophomore Ben Rind at No. 3, Leighton at No. 6 and senior tri-captain Chris Martin at No. 7. Although Leighton and Rind swept their opponents, Martin lost his second set, forcing the match into extra sets to decide the best-of-five match. Eventually emerging victorious in four games, Martin attributed his success to shot selection and physical consistency.
    "For the games I won, I kept my game very basic," Martin said. "I didn't try to do anything fancy — I hit the ball low and hard, keeping my opponent in the backcourt and gained points on his errors or opportunities in the front of the court. My strategy was simplicity and consistency. I kept the pace fast for the whole match to encourage him to make errors and let his errors put the game in our favor."
    Although unable to secure victories in most of the other matches, three Jumbos went into four sets while two were forced into five. In the No. 5 match, junior Zach Bradley fell to Colby sophomore Alexander Place in five sets as Place stormed back in the final two sets to beat Bradley. Similar come-from-behind Mule wins came in the No. 4 and No. 9 positions against junior Max Dalury and senior tri-captain Josh Levinson, respectively. Colby's fast-paced, back-handed shot strategy contributed to Tufts' demise as the squad rushed to adapt to the unfamiliar style of play.
    "I felt like I was off to a good start, keeping up with my opponent and being where I need to be on shots and winning the first game," Dalury said. "It came down to just not having good shot selection in the rest of the matches. Their Nos. 5 to 9 players were the most fast-paced and hard-hitting, which was something we weren't necessarily used to.
    "Colby beat us with low, hard-paced shots and, in the future, we need to adjust to opponents that play like that," he continued. "Our fitness is solid right now, so our main areas we need to improve on are shot selection and how to face hard-hitting opponents successfully."
    After falling to Colby on Friday, Tufts butted heads with 10th-seeded Conn. College and No. 11-seeded Wesleyan on Saturday in the losers' bracket, hosted by the Cardinals. Having defeated both teams the last five seasons, the Jumbos extended their streak, handily defeating Conn. College 9-0 and Wesleyan 8-1, with the only loss of the day coming in five games from Rind at the third slot. Although the back-to-back victories were refreshing for the team, the narrow loss to Colby was still fresh on its mind and has sent the Jumbos back to the drawing board.
    "The early elimination was tough, but at the same time, this group has the best team dynamic I've ever seen during my time at Tufts and we'll improve our game," Martin said. "We need to work on adaptation because we have a hard time adjusting to other player's styles of play ... Colby liked to hit the ball hard and keep us in the backcourt, which ultimately caused us to slip up and lose matches.
    "We need to get used to that speed of game play to win in the future," he continued. "We might start using a one-dot ball in practice that adds more speed and rebound to the game. If we begin using a one-dot ball, we should get better at controlling matches in the future, whereas in the past, speed may have impeded our success."
    Upcoming weekend action at the Maine Round Robin, hosted by Bowdoin, will offer the chance for the Jumbos to learn from the loss to Colby as they take on NESCAC foes Bates and the host Polar Bears in addition to a team from George Washington (GW). The Jumbos have not faced the Colonials since 2004 when Tufts eked out a 5-4 decision. GW recently reached its highest national ranking in program history at No. 22, which ought to provide the 20th-ranked Jumbos with stiff competition come Saturday.
    Before that, Tufts squares off against a formidable Bates lineup, which earned the No. 3-seeding in the NESCACs and has pounced on the Jumbos in the last five seasons, including an 8-1 pounding in last year's contest. However, considering Bates' recent loss in the semifinals versus Williams, coupled with Bradley and Leighton's respective successes against Bates in past matches and lessons learned from the Colby loss, there may be enough momentum for the Jumbos to poach the Bobcats this time around.
    "Bates is going to be a tough match, but we're looking forward to hard-fought matches," Leighton said. "It won't be a blowout; we have a chance to win a lot of games. We're looking forward to the whole weekend, because we'll be playing teams that are slightly above our level of play. If everyone plays well, we should be able to beat GW, and by beating these teams, we should move up in the college rankings while also proving ourselves against some slightly higher ranked opponents."
    "[Conn. College and Wesleyan] weren't very difficult matches, but they were opportunities to get us back on our feet," Martin added. "The weekend as a whole gave us more incentive to go back to Tufts and step up our physical training in preparation for next week. We need to play above our own level and push ourselves. We know what we have to do well to win, we've done it before and we'll do it again."