This weekend marked the last set of NESCAC matches this season for the men's tennis team, and the Jumbos made it truly count.
Cruising from Friday's 5-4 win over NESCAC rival Colby, the nationally ranked No. 30 Jumbos hoped to carry their momentum into Sunday's match against the No. 6 Middlebury Panthers, a conference squad that has squashed Tufts in the past few seasons. Taking the wind out of their sails, the 6-0 in-conference Panthers captured an 8-1 victory over the Jumbos in their last NESCAC match of the season. Despite the loss, the Tufts squad sees the match as a learning opportunity that uncovered the depth of its roster and the drive of its players.
"We made some of the singles very close, and to win one is an accomplishment," coach Doug Eng said. "In the past, we've lost to Middlebury 9-0, so they're a pretty tough team to go up against this late in the season.
"We played against Middlebury without four of our starters, but we have very good depth, so it turned out that we were still able to play competitively with our opponents," Eng continued.
Losing out on junior tri-captain Jon Trott, sophomore Paul Kohnstamm, junior Andrew Rosen and freshman Garrett Schuman, Tufts' doubles and singles lineups were adjusted, placing sophomore Tony Carucci and freshman Sam Laber in No. 3 doubles and having freshman Kai Victoria and junior tri-captain Daniel Landers compete in the Nos. 4 and 6 singles, respectively.
In No. 3 doubles, Carucci and Laber were no strangers to match competition, having gone undefeated in the No. 4 doubles exhibition matches this season. This time, however, a combination of strong serves and mistakes on game-changing points handed this Tufts duo its first loss this season. But the pairing was not alone in its loss, as Middlebury secured victories in all three doubles matches.
"[Middlebury] played their Nos. 1 and 4 singles players in No. 3 doubles against us," Carucci said. "One of the players has the best serve on their team, and they're very good players in general. We didn't take full advantage of some of the opportunities we had. Sam and I each made some mistakes on crucial points that could've changed the course of the match, but it was winnable."
"In the beginning of doubles, all of our teams played phenomenally well," junior tri-captain Bryan Wilner added. "I think we were on serve in all three matches for the first half of the set. It's just that Middlebury's mindset is stronger than ours. They have more confidence knowing they're going to win on the court. It seemed that in the tough points, Middlebury was able to pull away with all of them."
Notching Tufts' sole win of the match, Wilner ascended from the No. 6 to the No. 5 singles position and took the match into the day's only third-set tie-breaker. Wilner, who also recorded Tufts' sole singles match win against Williams earlier this month, snatched a decisive 6-2 victory in the first set but found trouble later on in adjusting to his opponent's shift in style of play. Falling by two games to Panthers sophomore Peter Odell in the second set, it was not until the tie-breaker that Wilner found his rhythm and adjusted accordingly to his opponent's deep shot play.
"I came out playing a lot sharper than my opponent," said Wilner, who took the match 6-2, 5-7, (10-4). "But in the second set, Middlebury's coach came in and had my opponent change his game play. In the first set we were having strong rallies with a lot of inside-out backhands, but in the second set he started hitting a lot of moon balls, keeping me deep.
"I wasn't expecting his change in style, and it took some time to adjust to that," Wilner continued. "He took the second set, but I just stayed focused on the next point and just tried to execute my game plan against him. In the tie-breaker, I was able to finally play that deep ball to pull out the victory."
Along with notching Tufts' first win over NESCAC foe Colby since the 2004-05 season, the Jumbos' 5-4 victory over the Mules on Friday marked the best win total for the program since the 2001-02 season and brought Tufts just one win shy of that season's total of 10.
In doubles action, Tufts faced stiff competition in an area of play in which Colby has traditionally held the upper hand. For the past two years, the Mules have swept the Jumbos in doubles matches, but the team of Landers and Kohnstamm quickly ended that streak. The pair took the No. 2 position 8-6, and while Victoria and sophomore Jake Fountain hoped to notch a second victory, the team was outperformed in the No. 1 position tie-breaker 9-8 (2).
"Colby's No. 1 doubles played very well, so that could have gone either way," Eng said. "We were fortunate that we were up at the break and pulled it out. Colby has always hurt us in doubles, so coming out with one out of three wins helped us stay alive in the match. If we had dropped all three doubles, we would've been in trouble."
It came down to the singles ladder to pull off the close win, as the singles players entered their matches down 2-1 overall. Edging out their opponents in the Nos. 3 and 4 spots, Rosen and Carucci were key to the team's success in turning the match around.
"I won the first set handily, but in the second set, my opponent played much more consistently and won the set," Carucci said. "I asked someone what the overall match score was, and I was told we were down 4-1. We had lost No. 1 and 2 singles already, so Nos. 3, 4, 5 and 6 were still on the court, and we needed to win all of them to win the match.
"I knew that [Schuman] was about to win, and [Laber] won shortly thereafter, so I knew my match was important," Carucci added. "I came out more aggressively and dictated play a little more, and luckily, I played a solid third set and won it easily."
After suffering a slight hamstring injury, Rosen continued his match into the third set, at which point the set was moved indoors as the sun set on the courts. In Rosen's opinion, it made all the difference in the Jumbo's ninth win of the year.
"We were playing outdoors in 30 mile-an-hour winds, and it was getting dark," Rosen said. "At that point, we had to move indoors, and that really worked to my advantage. It was warmer indoors, and the ball moved faster, and I played a great third set. The pressure got to him and a combination of fast play and the fact that the team was relying on him to pull out the win for the match victory."
Today, Tufts will face regionally ranked No. 9 MIT. While Tufts has not lost to MIT since 2004-05 season, the Jumbos have perpetually faced difficulty in overcoming the Engineers' doubles teams. With a national ranking on the line, the Tufts squad is well aware of the weight the match holds.
"Over the last decade, MIT's had a good team, but in the last few years, they've been weaker than usual," Eng said. "It's always a good rivalry. This year, they're doing fine even though they are not nationally ranked. We have more at stake than they do, a national ranking, while they're coming in with nothing to lose."
