The Tufts women's tennis team fell to longtime rival Williams this weekend in a non-league fall match at Wesleyan. The Jumbos have historically been outplayed by the Ephs on a regular basis, though they put up a good fight in May at the NCAA Round of 16, losing a close 5-4 match, which was particularly impressive considering that then-freshman Lindsay Katz, who played No. 3 singles and No. 2 doubles, was unable to play due to an ankle injury.
Tufts lost 6-2 on Saturday, as the team's only two wins came — unsurprisingly — by way of senior tri-captain Julia Browne, who won handily at No. 1 singles and teamed up with freshman Shelci Bowman to win at No. 1 doubles. Browne last spring won the NCAA Singles Championship after beating Williams senior Grace Baljon in the final round. Tufts' only conference losses last season came against Williams and Amherst.
Browne and Bowman defeated the top Williams pair of junior Krisin Alotta and senior Nicole Reich 8-6 to win the first point of the day. Browne also made it to the NCAAs doubles championships last May, but the graduation of her then-partner Meghan McCooey (LA '10) has paired the senior with the first-year Bowman.
"It's definitely been a hard transition," Browne said. "Meghan and I played together for two years, and we were best friends off the court as well. We were very comfortable playing together."
Browne and McCooey were named ITA All-Americans and made a run to the NCAA semifinals as the No. 1 seed. But even without McCooey, the Jumbos are finding success at the No. 1 doubles slot, as Bowman has stepped up as Browne's new partner and proven herself a valuable member of the Tufts team.
"So far, I've been very impressed with how Shelci has played," Browne said. "She's done a great job, especially since she is a freshman and has a lot going on. She has great instinct. We've worked together very well, and we get along. I'm looking forward to playing with her more and seeing how we progress."
Browne prevailed in singles as well, knocking off Alotta in a quick 6-0, 6-1 match.
At No. 2 doubles, the sophomore pair of Katz and Janice Lam suffered a close 9-7 defeat to Ephs partners junior Taylor French and sophomore Nancy Worley. The doubles match lasted for nearly two hours before the Williams duo was able to pull out the win.
"The team loss doesn't show how close each of the individual matches were," Lam said. "Just looking at the numbers, you can't see how hard we worked for every point."
Browne echoed that sentment.
"The final score doesn't reflect how close the match was," she said. "It really just came down to who could trust their shots more. And this weekend Williams did that."
Sophomore Lauren Hollender played a tough match at No. 4 singles, losing her first set 6-0 to Williams junior Caroline Capute.
Hollender refused to give up and successfully turned the match around with a 6-0 win in the second set, forcing the match into a third-set tiebreaker. She failed to keep up the momentum, though, losing 6-4 in the third set.
As a result of some long matches, Katz and Worley were unable to finish their No. 2 singles match as darkness covered the courts.
An important part of the fall match, Browne says, was for the veterans to log more court time against some of the nation's best players and for the inexperienced freshmen to grow.
Freshman Samantha Gann in particular saw a fair amount of action, playing at third doubles and fifth singles.
"It was a good opportunity for the freshman to play against one of the best teams in the nation and for them to see how close we were," Browne said.
The match marked the final team match for the Jumbos this fall season. It brought Tufts' record to 1-1, following a Sept. 30 victory over MIT. The Tufts loss kept Williams at a perfect 4-0.
"The Williams match was a great indication of where we are right now in the fall," Lam said. "It showed us how hard we have to work in the offseason in order to beat teams like Williams and Amherst. I think we can do it in the spring, and we're excited to show that we can."
This weekend, Tufts will compete in a three-day individual tournament, the New England Women's Intercollegiate Tennis Tournament, hosted by Amherst, Smith and Mt. Holyoke. The tournament is the last match before the winter offseason, a time for the team to train and prepare for the more important spring season.
