The Tufts men's tennis team began its fall season with two wins in Rhode Island, defeating Roger Williams University 8−1 and Salve Regina 9−0.
The Jumbos split up their team in order to face both schools. In the first match against Salve Regina, Tufts utilized its new freshmen talent, as first−years Pat Monaghan, Austin Blau, Zach Ladwig and Matt Pataro contributed three of the six convincing straight−set singles victories.
"We have a bunch of new guys and a new coaching staff; we got a lot of the guys involved in the matches, and any time you can split your squad and play two matches against two teams' entire squads, it really helps your confidence, and I think it's a great way to start the season," senior Paul Kohnstamm said.
In the doubles matches, Tufts' top pairing of Kohnstamm and Monaghan defeated Salve Regina's pair of Zachary Rosenfeld and Chad Strong.
"It was our first match together, we are still getting used to playing together," Kohnstamm said. "There were games in the match that we should have closed them out. And they got back in the match, and that is something that we are going to do better, in terms of closing out our own service games, if we want to do better against stronger competition this weekend. But it was good to get that first win."
In the second match, Tufts comprehensively defeated Roger Williams 8−1. Sophomore Andrew Lutz won 6−2, 6−2 at the No. 1 singles spot and also teamed up with fellow sophomore Ben Barad to win the No. 1 doubles match 8−2. Barad and classmate Mark Westerfield also had convincing singles wins, winning 6−0, 6−4 and 6−2, 6−4, respectively.
"We thought going in that we would have a good chance to win," junior Morrie Bossen said. "I think we have a very deep team; we weren't too worried even though we split the teams up. We thought as long as we split them up evenly we would be fine."
Bossen took his match in the four spot easily at 6−1, 6−1, though he and Westerfield dropped their doubles match in the Jumbos' lone blemish of the weekend.
The last time the Jumbos took the court was in May when they lost to the Bates Bobcats, knocking them out of contention for the NESCAC title.
"We have a great group of freshmen and a lot of returning players, so our goal is to make it to the NESCAC tournament, which we didn't make last year, and we are looking to get over that hump," Kohnstamm said.
This summer has also been one of personnel changes at the top for the team, with the departure of coach Doug Eng, who has now been replaced by interim coach Jim Watson, who had coached the Jumbos from 1981−2004.
"With Coach Watson, we are trying to look forward; that's what Paul and I are trying to emphasize to the freshmen," Bossen said. "Coach Watson runs very efficient practices and he's always pushing us. We are working harder this year and that's a big difference."
The Jumbos' fall schedule continues with a three−day meet at the ITA Div. III championships at Williams College this weekend, which will be the Jumbos' first big test of the new season.
"We are really looking forward to ITAs this weekend," Kohnstamm said. "It's always a good test to see how the top of our lineup will do against other top teams and it's always a fun tournament. We are looking forward to build on last weekend and get our season off to a good start, and then working hard through the off−season so that we are ready for the main part of the season in the spring."
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Editor's Note (Nov. 16, 2010): The 11th paragraph of this article has been updated since the article was originally posted, for the purposes of clarity.
