Coming off a five-month hiatus after its fall schedule, the men's tennis team is preparing to extend its undefeated streak as it kicks off its more competitive spring season. While other teams face possible "rebuilding years" with the graduation of key seniors and the induction of incoming freshmen, the Jumbos believe this may be one of their most promising squads yet.
"This team is one of the most competitive and promising top-to-bottom teams I've seen since I've been at Tufts," junior tri-captain Daniel Landers said. "NESCAC teams have gotten much better since my freshman year, but I think that with our depth we might be able to make a run to the NESCAC championship."
Led by junior tri-captains Landers, Bryan Wilner, and Jon Trott, this season's roster is comprised mainly of underclassmen with no seniors in the lineup. Posting shutout wins in the fall schedule against Babson and Salve Regina, Tufts freshmen Sam Laber, Garrett Schuman and Kai Victoria helped carry the team to victories in both doubles and singles matches. While the spring starting lineup has yet to be finalized, it's expected that all five of the freshmen will play a major role in potentially securing wins in the historically turbulent doubles matches, which often are the difference between winning or losing the match.
"The main thing we have to do better this season is improve on our doubles play," said junior Andrew Rosen, who notched a team-leading 10 wins last season. "Last year, our singles performed pretty well, but it was difficult to go down in doubles play and then lose matches because of it. I'm feeling very confident because the freshmen we have are likely going to be starting and will make a great contribution to the team. Also, if we can perform better in doubles play, our mindset going into singles matches will be different, playing off of the momentum created in early wins."
Last season, Tufts was ranked at No. 21 in the nation and placed a respectable 8-7 overall record, but was unable to find more success in conference play, where the Jumbos finished with a 2-6 record. With the addition of new talent, the Jumbos hope to translate their offseason efforts into early-season wins as they look ahead to their spring break matches.
"We are going to be tested on our spring break trip," Rosen said. "We have two or three freshmen that most likely will be starting in doubles and that could be enough to put us over the threshold for wins against some of our toughest opponents of our spring schedule."
The NESCAC has traditionally yielded the premier tennis teams in the nation and this year is no exception. Rounding out the top 10 teams in the country are Middlebury, ranked fourth; Williams, ranked fifth; and Amherst, ranked sixth. In the No. 10 through No. 20 positions, Bowdoin holds onto No. 11 and Trinity No. 14, with Bates ranking just outside the top 20 at No. 21. With just five teams in the NESCAC unranked, the Jumbos hope to rack up early-season wins on their spring break trip to Florida to build confidence going into a competitive April schedule of NESCAC opponents.
"Our spring break matches are very important," Landers said. "If we win all three matches, we'll become a nationally ranked team. We had some pretty bad results last year and it would be nice to be nationally ranked again. In April, when we begin to face tough NESCAC teams, we may pull out wins based off of home-court advantage because everyone's indoor courts vary."
Over spring break, the Jumbos will be thrown into what may prove to be the toughest competition all season against teams that they have never played before. Beginning Sunday, the Jumbos will face off against the nationally ranked No. 31 LeTourneau University Yellow Jackets in Orlando, Fla. They will then stay in Orlando another day, where they compete on Monday against an unranked 4-4 Grinnell Pioneers team that poses less of a threat to the Tufts squad. Then, they head to Miami on Tuesday to play the No. 15 Johns Hopkins Blue Jays.
"LeTourneau is one of the top teams we are playing against this season," Rosen said. "We are trying to perform our best in preparation, but we've never played them before, so we're not sure what to expect. Because we don't know what kind of team we're facing, it's crucial that we show up prepared to prove our talents that we've developed in the offseason captains' practices and hopefully get the spring season off to a good start."
