Men's Tennis | Tufts splits its weekend matches

    With another two NESCAC matches under its belt, the men's tennis team has taken the good with the bad. The Jumbos grabbed a 7-2 win on Sunday against Hamilton after falling 8-1 at the hands of Bowdoin on Saturday.
    On Sunday, the nationally ranked No. 30 Jumbos took to the Voute Courts to take on NESCAC foe Hamilton in their fourth home match of the season. Last year, Tufts swept the Continentals 9-0, beating the fledging squad handily. This year, while not managing a shutout, Tufts did come away with a decisive victory.
    The Tufts squad found its most formidable Continentals opponents in doubles action. After Tufts secured wins in the first and second doubles matches, the freshly minted Jumbo team of freshman Kai Victoria and sophomore Jared Glick faced off against Hamilton sophomores Peter Erwin and Mike Moreno. In a tight game of back-and-forth play, Erwin and Moreno had a late break of serve to secure a 9-7 win over the Jumbo tandem, sending the match into singles action with a close 2-1 Tufts lead.
    "We shifted our lineup in the Hamilton match, which may have had an impact in doubles," junior tri-captain Daniel Landers said. "We had a close match at No. 3 with Kai and Jared, who have never played together. Also, [freshman Morrie Bossen] and Jon played at No. 2 doubles, which they haven't done before. I thought [Hamilton] was a decent team in doubles and we had some close matches with them. In singles, though, we are a much stronger team and we found easier wins in those matches."
    The Jumbos were challenged by near-gale-force winds that weakened their typically powerful serves.
    "These matches were close because of the windy conditions, which neutralized our serves," Landers said. "In doubles, the serve is a key component, and losing it can really throw off a match."
    In singles play, the sole Hamilton victory came from Moreno once again, as he edged out freshman Sam Laber in the No. 4 position. The Jumbos dealt with the Continentals in straight sets in all five other singles matches, sending Hamilton packing with a 1-6 overall record.
    In Saturday's matchup against the defending NESCAC champion and national No. 11 Polar Bears, the Jumbos had an opportunity to shatter their NESCAC rival's ranking and elevate their own in turn, but they were quickly put on ice with the 8-1 decision.
    In doubles play, Tufts found little success in upsetting its opponents, but its losses could in part be attributed to the less-than-ideal surface of the indoor courts that skewed the Jumbos' ability to predict ball movement. Moreover, lineup changes — pairing Victoria and Glick for the first time and moving Trott and Bossen to the No. 3 position — may have been too much for a Tufts squad that had to adapt to Bowdoin's talented lineup.
    "I don't think Kai and Jared have played together before this match, and I think they played well under the conditions," said Landers, who lost 8-4 at No. 2 doubles with sophomore Paul Kohnstamm. "I thought that we were a bit unlucky because we had to play the doubles matches indoors, and they have incredibly slow courts, and the ball bounces awkwardly on the surface. Even though doubles weren't very close, it wasn't because our team was substantially less talented.
    "We didn't get much out of our serves on the indoor surface while Bowdoin was used to playing on its courts and served effectively on them," he continued. "This was best seen in singles because we played outdoors for those matches. Except for a couple matches, most of the games were pretty close and I think we matched up well with a team that has won NESCACs in the past and leads the conference."
    After heading into singles play with a 3-0 lead, the 8-3 Polar Bears secured their sixth consecutive win by nixing the Jumbos' top three singles players in straight sets. In the No. 2 position, junior tri-captain Jon Trott grappled with shoulder pains during his 6-1, 6-1 loss, and in the No. 1 position, sophomore Jake Fountain put up a fight but lost 6-3, 6-4 against Bowdoin sophomore Stephen Sullivan, who competed in the doubles championship game of the ITA Tournament last fall.
    At the bottom of the singles lineup, Tufts battled hard, with sophomore Tony Carucci and freshman Garrett Schuman sending their matches to super-tiebreakers in the No. 4 and 5 spots before falling to their opponents. In his first collegiate start, Laber forced a decisive third set in the No. 6 position against Bowdoin senior Alex White, who was the other half of the ITA doubles runner-up team. In the 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 decision, Laber secured the sole singles victory for the Tufts squad.
    "I think it was important for our team to show Bowdoin that we are capable of playing competitively with the higher-ranked teams," Landers said. "They are just outside the top 10 in the country, and they're a part of the group of teams in the NESCAC that are just amazing. To have close matches against them that could've gone either way shows us that under different circumstances, we could've been in a really close match."
    Finding themselves at 7-4 with just three conference matches remaining, the Jumbos look ahead to their non-conference matchup with the 8-6 Vassar Brewers on Friday and their NESCAC match against the national No. 5 Williams Ephs on Saturday as crucial to improving their ranking and giving a final push before closing the season.
    Last season, Tufts pulled off a close 5-4 win against the Brewers, which may have been closer than expected due to the loss of key starters from the lineup because of scheduling conflicts. The Ephs have a long history of success, at one point having won 11 consecutive NESCAC titles and three NCAA championships. But after recording close matches against other top-ranked opponents, the Jumbos are not ready to rule out the possibility of an upset.
    "Williams is one of the top teams we play this season," junior Andrew Rosen said. "They're obviously a really talented group, and we haven't had the best history playing them. However, two years ago we won two out of three doubles matches, and while we lost the match as a whole, it was important for our mindset going into singles. If we can come out and pick up some wins in doubles, that'll put us in the right state of mind in singles … Anything can happen."