For the women's tennis team, Tuesday's matchup with nationally ranked No. 6 Amherst was the first true NESCAC test of the year. This weekend, the going only gets tougher.
On the heels of a narrow 5-4 setback to the Jeffs, national No. 14 Tufts will be faced with the difficult task of trying to bounce back against No. 1 and defending national champion Williams tomorrow at 1 p.m. The contest will mark the Ephs' first match since it completed a perfect 5-0 spring break trip to Georgia, one which featured three victories against top-five teams.
"We definitely have a lot of respect for the Williams team," sophomore Julia Browne said. "They've proven themselves over the years as being always among the top teams in the nation, and last year winning a national championship, they clearly are the best team in the nation ... We're not going to approach it like we have nothing to lose because we do feel like we can compete with them. So we're still going to take it like a normal match and just know that we're going to have to play better and fight a lot harder than we've had to all year."
With both teams boasting some of the top talent in the country, the stage is set for a slew of marquee matchups. The most notable could be at first doubles, where a likely Williams pairing of senior co-captain Cary Gibson and sophomore Nikki Reich will meet Tufts' tandem of Browne and junior captain Meghan McCooey. Ranked one-two in the most recent Northeast regional poll, the two teams last met in the ITA New England championship match on Sept. 28, 2008, with Gibson and Reich pulling out a narrow 9-8 (4) victory.
But when the Williams duo declined a subsequent invitation to participate in Small College Nationals, Browne and McCooey served as the Northeast region's representatives instead. Given a fortuitous chance to appear on the big stage for the first time, the Jumbos did not disappoint, taking down the tournament's top three seeds en route to the program's first national championship.
Browne and McCooey haven't lost since, going a perfect 6 for 6 in dual match play this spring. Tomorrow, they'll have a chance to avenge one of just two losses they have suffered since being paired together in September.
"We can't wait," McCooey said. "Last time, it ended in a tiebreaker, which is always tough, so we really want to get back out there. We've gotten better since last playing them, and I'm sure they have, too. It should be a good match."
On the singles side, the probable matchup at No. 1 between Browne and Williams junior Grace Baljon will certainly be one to watch. After missing the fall season to study abroad, Baljon has returned to mixed results at the top spot and will enter her meeting with Browne in the midst of a two-match losing streak.
The two have never met before, but Browne has had some recent success against Williams in singles play, besting both Gibson and Reich on her way to the ITA New England crown on Sept. 28, 2008. Still, Baljon, a perfect 4-0 against Tufts in dual match and tournament play in her career, figures to be a formidable challenge for the Jumbo sophomore.
"I've never played Grace before, but I've watched her play; she finished last year No. 3 in the nation and got to the semifinals of Nationals, so she's definitely a really good player," Browne said. "I'm going to have to play a really good match in order to beat her. But I have been playing well this year and working really hard during the offseason and during the spring, so I'm confident and I'm just ready to give it everything I have to beat her."
Another key showdown will likely occur at the No. 2 spot between McCooey and Gibson. The two last squared off in the semifinals of the NCAA Championships last May, with Gibson dealing McCooey a 6-3, 6-2 setback and ending the Jumbo's Cinderella run through the tournament field. Like Baljon, however, Gibson enters tomorrow's contest on a bit of a slide, having lost three of four singles matches this spring. McCooey, meanwhile, upped her personal winning streak to five on Tuesday after besting Amherst junior Jill Wexler in an impressive 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory.
"I'm definitely looking forward to playing her," McCooey said. "She's a really talented player, and she always gives it her all on the court, but I'm definitely looking forward to a good, challenging match, and I think I just have to really focus on my mental game and shot selection and just having the confidence out there that I can beat her."
Still, if Tufts is to pull off an upset, they'll have to come up with victories in the bottom of both lineups. Against the Jeffs, junior Erica Miller was the only Jumbo not named Browne or McCooey to record a victory, as Amherst picked up wins at No. 4, 5 and 6 and swept matches at second and third doubles to tip the final score in its favor.
Earning those all-important wins in the lower tier of the ladder will involve overcoming Williams' tremendous depth. Every one of the four players expected to fill in the Ephs' lineup from third singles to sixth singles -- Reich, freshman Kristin Alotta, junior Ashley Parsons and senior co-captain Annie Hancock -- is ranked in the Northeast top 25. But despite the daunting task that Williams poses throughout its lineup, the Jumbos believe that with the right mindset, they'll have a chance.
"They definitely have really strong players throughout the lineup, but I think we just need to focus on realizing that we don't have to do anything special against them," McCooey said. "They're going to hit great shots, and we have to be okay with that and just move on to the next point and trust in our game."
