After a tough start to the season, the men's tennis team got back into the win column with a thorough dispatching of the Hamilton College Continentals 7−2, giving the Jumbos their first NESCAC win and improving their overall record to 4−5. After three tough matches last weekend against top−ranked Middlebury College, 13th−ranked Bowdoin and a strong Brandeis University team, the Jumbos finally put together all the pieces and prevailed on a windy day in upstate New York.
"The Hamilton environment ended up being windy," senior tri−captain Andrew Rosen said. "We tried not to get frustrated, and we felt going in that if we played our game against Hamilton, we would win."
The Jumbos were dominant in both singles and doubles, winning five out of six singles matches and two out of the three doubles matches. In doubles, the Jumbos had to use a makeshift lineup at the No. 1 spot, pairing sophomore Kai Victoria with senior tri−captain Daniel Landers instead of his normal partner, junior Jake Fountain. The pair fell to their Hamilton competitors 8−5. However, the Jumbos responded well, and the No. 2 team consisting of freshmen Ben Barad and Andrew Lutz won 8−5, while sophomores Morrie Bossen and Sam Laber also won by the same score at the No. 3 spot.
"We had a bit of a disadvantage because Jake Fountain was not playing, so we had to go with a makeshift lineup at No. 1 doubles," Rosen said. "Kai Victoria and Daniel Landers played well, but they came up short. Sam Laber and Morrie Bossen had a really impressive performance, as did Ben Barad and Andrew Lutz under very windy conditions, which were very frustrating, but they really stayed focused and ultimately pulled out the win."
In the singles matches, Rosen won the Jumbos' first match in the first singles slot, beating Hamilton freshman Jon Franzel convincingly 6−4, 6−0. Rosen was locked in a tight first set against Franzel, when at 4−4 the Tufts captain hit a strategically placed lob over Franzel on game point, which proved to be the turning moment in the match.
The first−year Barad also performed well in his No. 3 singles match with a 6−3, 6−2 victory over Hamilton freshman Jordan Petit, and his classmate Lutz had an impressive victory at the No. 5 singles spot, rolling over Hamilton's Mike Moreno 6−3, 6−2. In the other singles matches, Laber defeated Hamilton's Greg Kreitzer 6−1, 7−5, at the No. 4 spot, while junior Tony Carucci emerged on top against Hamilton junior Peter Erwin 7−6(2), 6−0, at the No. 6 spot.
"We were very confident that we could win the singles matches," Barad said. "In the doubles matches, we tried to get balls in and keep it in play. As a team, we tried to consistently get our returns in play, and that was when we had some of our best play."
Tufts' next matches will be this afternoon at home against NESCAC rival Wesleyan University and next Saturday on the road in Williamstown, Mass. against the Williams Ephs. The Jumbos will look to keep their positive momentum going against the historically weak Cardinals — who are coming off a 9−0 loss to NESCAC heavyweight Middlebury — while the matchup against Williams, whose last match was an 8−1 non−conference victory against Skidmore and who has yet to play a NESCAC match but who is usually dominant in−conference, looms as a potential test of the Jumbos' mettle.
"We feel Wesleyan is very beatable — they won 5−4 against Hamilton — so we feel that if we can play our game, especially at home, that it's a winnable match," Rosen said. "Williams has always been one of the top programs, and it will be a very tough match, even if we played our very best tennis, so we basically have nothing to lose against them, and we will give it our best effort."
