Over the course of the past few decades, the No. 5 women's tennis team has come up short many times in its attempts to unseat No. 1 Williams, the perennial power of the NESCAC.
The Jumbos' fall opener was to be more of the same, as the Ephs posted a dominant 8-1 victory on Saturday.
The lone Tufts win came from the No. 1 doubles pairing of junior captain Lindsay Katz and sophomore Shelci Bowman, who defeated Williams sophomore Kara Shoemaker and junior Nancy Worley.
But the victory did not come easily for the Jumbos. Katz and Bowman were down 8-7 and forced to hold serve to keep the match alive.
They did so successfully, and then dominated in the tiebreaker, winning it 7-0 and preventing Williams from earning a 9-0 sweep in the process.
"There was a specific point in the last game where I looked at Shelci and said, ‘no matter where they hit the return, I'm just going to go for the ball so if I run all the way across the court, cover me on the other side,'" Katz said.
"During the next point, I ran over as fast as I could. It was a huge turning point because it gave us a lot of confidence and intimidated the other team. Shelci and I got a lot tighter, and they were playing a lot less aggressively, which we were able to capitalize on during the tiebreaker."
The match marked the first time Katz and Bowman competed in doubles together.
Last season, Bowman was paired with nationally ranked No. 7 Julia Browne (LA '11) in the No. 1 spot.
"It was exciting to play in a competitive match with [Bowman], as opposed to just practicing with her," Katz said. "We have really compatible game styles and we complement each other really well."
Junior Lauren Hollender and sophomore Sam Gann fell 8-4 at No. 2 doubles, and junior Janice Lam and sophomore Rebecca Kimmel were defeated quickly in an 8-1 match in the No. 3 doubles spot.
Williams won all six singles matches in straight sets.
None of the Jumbos managed to take more than two games in the first set, but they looked more resilient in the second.
Hollender, Gann and Kimmel all fell 7-5, and Katz and Lam lost 6-4. The change showed the team's ability to learn and adapt on the court.
"We started to rely on each other for the last set," Katz said. "Someone would go up a game and motivate the next person to keep playing, so we were all pushing each other.
Every single person had the potential to win the second set. It was just hard because after everyone on the team lost the first set, Williams got a lot of momentum."
After each player lost the first set handily, the team made sure to maintain a positive mental attitude going into the second set.
"We need to improve mentally because of how most of us lost the first set quickly," Hollender said. "I think it was just a little intimidating starting out. People finished up the first set knowing they could do better. In addition, by the second set we had figured out our opponents."
Hollender faced nationally ranked No. 8 senior Kristin Alotta in the No. 3 spot in singles play. But Alotta's reputation and ranking did not change the way in which Hollender approached the match.
"It actually took away pressure because I didn't have anything to lose," Hollender said. "I knew how good of a player she was, and I knew I could try anything."
Despite the resounding defeat, the team feels that it can benefit from playing such challenging competition early in the season.
After losing to Williams 6-2 early last year, the Jumbos continued to improve, eventually pushing No. 2 Amherst to the brink of defeat before falling 5-4.
"It's great to have the good competition right at the beginning because now we know where our weaknesses are, and we'll use it to our advantage," Katz said. "We've gotten really good at setting up points, but we saw that sometimes we aren't able to capitalize on the last shot once we set up the point. We need to execute better, but we're right there."
Tufts travels to MIT on Thursday for its last match before the ITA Regional Championships on Sept. 30-Oct. 2.
