The No. 10 Jumbos head into the spring season with 13 players on their roster, including five freshmen, the biggest team in recent years.
"With so many players on the team this year, our depth is incredibly good, and it will be a driving force this season," senior tri−captain Edwina Stewart said. "I would feel confident in every one of my teammates to go out there and play for us."
The team is looking to improve on last year's 15−7 record, which left them in third place in the NESCAC behind rivals No. 1 Williams and No. 2 Amherst. The team's only two conference losses came against the Ephs and the Lord Jeffs.
The Jumbos will be forced to adjust to playing outdoors in the next few of weeks as the weather gets warmer and the last remnants of snow melt off the tennis courts, following an offseason filled with indoor practices and strength and conditioning workouts.
"We've been working really hard during our off−season and during these first few weeks back," senior tri−captain Julia Browne said. "We came really close last year to making it to the quarterfinals of nationals. Our goal is always to win the national championships."
As the reigning NCAA singles champion and two−time defending NESCAC Player of the Year, Browne holds an unparalleled role on this team. Browne will set out to defend her singles title, but must also find a new doubles partner after the graduation of Meghan McCooey (LA '10), with whom Browne captured two straight ITA Small College National Championships.
McCooey has remained with the team as a volunteer assistant at practices and Browne has welcomed her former partner's presence.
"It's always hard when you lose someone like [Meghan]," she said. "You can never replace her. … It's kind of like she's still on the team but just isn't able to compete in the matches. She's such a great impact and will always be a part of this team."
This deep team has experimented with different doubles combinations in the wake of McCooey's departure.
"This year, because we have the biggest team that we've had so far … it's actually kind of exciting that there are so many different [doubles] combinations," Browne said. "Coming up with the three best teams that will give us the best chance to win the majority of doubles matches will be the most important thing for us to get our momentum started."
Freshman Shelci Bowman, Browne's doubles partner in the fall and potential partner in the spring, has worked hard to fill the void created by McCooey's departure. In a 6−2 team loss on Oct. 9 versus Williams, Bowman and Browne showed off their teamwork by grabbing a close 8−6 win at No. 1 doubles. The only other win for the Jumbos unsurprisingly came from Browne at No. 1 singles in two quick sets where she gave up just one game to her opponent, Ephs junior Kristin Alotta.
The Jumbos have not had a team win against the Ephs in the past few seasons, but they hope that this could be their year to knock off the NESCAC titans.
"With teams that are really deep like Williams, you have to keep working hard and getting more match experience," sophomore Lindsay Katz, the 2010 NESCAC Rookie of the Year, said. "In the fall, we hadn't played many matches, but once the spring season starts, we'll get into the match mindset and get more focused. A lot of the games were close so we need to work to turn those games around."
The Jumbos will look to continue momentum from the fall season, which included an 8−1 win over MIT. In that match, Browne was the only Jumbo to lose, falling to first−year Lauren Quisenberry in three sets.
Spring break brings four matches against unfamiliar teams for the Jumbos, three of which are ranked in the top 10 of Div. III schools. Tufts starts off the season against Sewanee on March 22 at home and then heads to Atlanta to play No. 9 Washington and Lee, No. 4 University of Chicago and No. 2 Emory. In the past four years, Tufts has not faced any of these non−conference teams, and the team is looking forward to seeing how they match up against the new competition.
"It will be great to see competition from around the country and get some matches in against teams we don't normally get the chance to play," Stewart said.
