After a tough start to its fall schedule, the men's squash team finally found its rhythm on the court, taking two out of three matches in a marathon day of squash action this past Saturday.
Before facing Cornell, Boston University (BU) and MIT, the Tufts squad sat at 0-3 with losses at the hands of Williams, Middlebury and Bates. While the Jumbos knew that Cornell would be a difficult matchup, they had high expectations against MIT, whom they had beaten by a combined score of 33-3 over the previous four years, and BU, which Tufts has never faced before.
"The matches went as expected," sophomore Henry Miller said. "Cornell is very strong this season, so that was obviously tough, but the MIT and BU matches didn't surprise us too much, and I thought we played well overall."
Topping off the Saturday triple-header with a match against the Big Red, Tufts hoped to capitalize on a debilitated Cornell squad that had just suffered a close 6-3 loss against Harvard not too long before taking the court against the Jumbos. Cornell, 2-2 coming into the match, had other plans in mind, quickly defeating eight of nine Tufts opponents in straight sets for an 8-1 win.
Senior co-captain Zach Bradley, playing in the No. 2 position, captured Tufts' sole win in a four-set match against Cornell sophomore Thomas Spettigue. With Bradley controlling the serve at 10-9 in the third set for match point, Spettigue battled back and took the set 12-10. In the fourth, however, Bradley's agility and control of the T paid dividends in the 11-4 win to take the match from his worn out opponent.
"My opponent pulled out some nice shots, and he pulled it out in the third set there," Bradley said. "Going into the fourth set, I tried to limit some of the mistakes I was making in earlier matches and just tried to get him moving around more, and it worked."
"[Bradley]'s win against Cornell was great," Miller added. "That was huge. He is really impressing us this season."
Before facing Cornell in the afternoon, Tufts crossed rackets with the Terriers for the first time in the program's history. Tufts' closest call against BU came in the No. 5 position, where Miller faced tough opposition from the start with a first-set, 7-11 loss to Terrier David Scott. While Miller went on to win the next two sets, Scott stayed alive with a 12-10 victory in the fourth. In the final set, though, Miller skillfully returned drives and drop shots that allowed Tufts to take the match 9-0, its first shutout of the season.
"I think I got a little too confident in that match and I didn't warm up enough before playing," Miller said. "My opponent was deceptively good, but I was glad I was able to swoop down for returns. It was a close one."
"We knew BU had some good players, especially at the top of the ladder," Bradley added. "With the exception of a couple matches, the games went smoothly. Everyone pulled it out in the end and buckled down when they needed to, and it was nice to pull off the sweep in that match."
Tufts faced MIT on the Engineers' home court to kick off Saturday's slate of matches. The Jumbos continued their trend of success against MIT, topping their opponent with an 8-1 decision. Tufts cleaned up with six straight set wins and one come-from-behind victory in four sets from freshman Sheldon Taylor in the No. 4 position.
Taylor lost his opening set 11-13 but held his opponent to a total of 17 points in the following three sets. In the No. 8 position, sophomore newcomer Chris Stoj split two lopsided sets with his opponent, dropping the first 11-3 and winning the second 11-6. In the third set, Stoj lost narrowly in a frustrating 15-13 set, paving the way for his opponent Ishaan Chugh to take the match.
"We went in knowing MIT would be one of our weaker opponents, but I think everyone played pretty hard and took care of business," Bradley said. "It was good to see some of the younger players, who haven't had too much experience playing this season in matches, go out there and get a bunch of wins."
With winter break on the horizon, the team will see the return of some crucial players to its lineup, such as juniors Alex Gross and Ben Rind. While most Tufts students will be spending their breaks at home, the men's squash team will be preparing for one of its biggest matches of the season against Colby College.
"We're coming back early to train for the second half of the season," Bradley said. "The way we're playing now, we think we're going to do much better than last season, and when we go up against teams like Colby, we're confident that we have a chance to turn the tables on them this time around."
