The men's tennis team continued its busy schedule last week with matches against Wheaton College on Tuesday and Trinity College on Thursday. The Jumbos got back to their winning ways against Wheaton at the Voute Courts, drubbing the Lyons 9−0. On Thursday, however, the Jumbos were given a dose of reality when they made the trip south to Hartford to play against NESCAC rival Trinity, losing 8−1.
The Bantams got out to a quick start in the doubles matches with the No. 1 Trinity duo of sophomore Anson McCook and senior Spencer Feldman defeating the Jumbos' pairing of sophomore Kai Victoria and junior Jake Fountain 8−5. After coming out of the gates slowly, Victoria and Fountain battled back to make the match competitive, but the Bantams hit key shots down the stretch and managed to outlast their Tufts opponents.
"Against Trinity, we went down an early break in the first game of the match, and it was difficult to come back from that," Fountain said. "However, we got back to 5−4 on their serve, and we had two opportunities to break, but we didn't due to some lack of focus and some really good shots from Trinity, and that was the turning point of the match."
The Bantams went on to sweep the doubles matches, as their No. 2 and No. 3 tandems each downed their respective Tufts opponents by scores of 8−3.
In the singles matches, Trinity was nearly as successful, taking all but one of the pairings. McCook handily defeated Fountain 6−3, 6−1 in the No. 1 spot, while Bantam junior Rich Bonfiglio dropped Victoria 6−1, 6−1 in the No. 2 match.
Things got a bit more interesting in the No. 3 pairing, however, as senior tri−captain Andrew Rosen put up a valiant effort against Trinity sophomore Dan Couzens. After dropping the first set 6−3, Rosen came back to take the second stanza 6−2, setting up a dramatic tiebreaker which he lost, 11−9. The lone win for the Jumbos came from freshman Andrew Lutz in the No. 6 spot, in which he defeated senior Ian Malakoff 7−5, 3−6 (10−8).
Though the loss to Trinity wasn't particularly close, the Jumbos could take some consolation in the fact that they routed Wheaton, 9−0, earlier in the week. Tufts swept the Lyons in both the doubles and singles categories, earning its first shutout victory of the season.
"We didn't know much about Wheaton going into the match; we knew they had a very good record but didn't have many high−quality victories, so we didn't know what to expect," senior tri−captain Daniel Landers said. "But coach [Doug] Eng told us to expect a tough match, and we went out there and got a pretty lopsided victory, which we were pretty happy about."
In the doubles matches, Victoria and Fountain combined to take out their Lyon opponents 8−4, while Lutz and freshman Ben Barad had even less trouble against theirs, emerging with an 8−1 victory. The tightest match came at the No. 3 spot, at which Landers and freshman Mark Westerfield pulled out an 8−6 triumph.
In singles play, the Jumbos simply dominated Wheaton, winning each match without dropping a set. The closest calls of the day came in the No. 2 and 3 pairings, as Victoria and Barad needed a little time to adjust to their opponents' games.
Victoria barely took the first set over Wheaton senior James Little with a score of 7−6 before moving on to an easy 6−2 victory in the second, while Barad battled senior Kyle Hudgins to a 7−5 victory in the first before cruising to a 6−1 victory in the next frame.
The Jumbos will continue NESCAC play in their last two regular−season matches against Colby College on Friday and Bates College on Sunday. For Tufts, these two matches will be the most important of the season; with just a 2−4 conference record, the Jumbos will need to win both to guarantee themselves a spot at the NESCAC Championships.
"We are going to go out and play hard against Colby and Bates," Landers said. "Colby lost a lot of players, and we beat them 5−4 last year, so we are hoping to get a pretty decisive victory over them. Going into the Bates match, it's a toss up; we are definitely underdogs to them, and they beat us last year, but hopefully we can win some matches and surprise them. We aren't expected to win, but it shouldn't be as lopsided as it was last year."
