This past weekend, Tufts got the opportunity it was looking for: a head?to?head battle against Amherst, the nation's third?ranked team and Tufts' perennial NESCAC rival. But ultimately, the Lord Jeffs proved too much to handle, and the Jumbos fell short in the finals of the Nor'Easter Bowl at Wellesley to close out an otherwise successful weekend.
The 12th?ranked Jumbos have plenty of positives to take away from the three?day tournament, where they dispatched two solid squads in the Engineers and the Blue to reach the championship match.
Tufts' first opponent in the bracket?style tournament was MIT, a team the Jumbos had already played and beaten once this season. The results were the same the second time, with MIT falling 8?1. Tufts dominated in singles play, led by an almost perfect performance from junior Janice Lam, who won 6?0, 6?1. The No. 1 doubles team, consisting of Lam and junior captain Lindsay Katz, was tripped up, losing its match 8?5.
"I thought [the first two matches] went really well," said sophomore Samantha Gann, who won her first singles match 6?3, 6?3. "We came out really focused and really fired up. We took two good teams that could have been tough matchups, and we really handled them well and just took care of business."
The second of those teams was 18th?ranked Wellesley, which certainly expected to provide Tufts with a challenge. Instead, Tufts strolled to a 7?2 victory, and while Wellesley proved tougher than MIT, the Jumbos buckled down when they had to and earned the victory over the Blue.
Sophomore Shelci Bowman came away with two hard?fought wins, in No. 2 singles spot and No. 1 doubles. Bowman had to climb back from a 6?4 loss in her first set, and she did so in convincing fashion, winning her next two sets 6?3, 6?4. In her doubles match, Bowman and first?year Sophie Schonfeld played hard to the bitter end, eventually walking away with a victory, 9?8, after taking the final tiebreaker 7?4.
Katz had a tough matchup at the No. 1 singles position, going up against 34th?ranked Marie Watanabe and falling, 6?2, 7?5. However, as has been the case all year, the rest of the team stepped up, led by a solid effort from sophomore Samantha Gann, who won her singles match 6?3, 6?1.
"We did a really good job against Wellesley, of going up 3?0 in doubles, and carrying that momentum into singles play," Gann said. "We were able to stay focused for the whole match and stay fired up."
But the team ran into its biggest test of the season so far against Amherst. The Lord Jeffs feature two top?25 singles players, No. 5 Jordan Brewer and No. 25 Laura Danzig.
"Amherst is always tough competition for us, and they were especially difficult on Sunday," sophomore Rebecca Kimmel said. "Even though they played better than us, we learned a lot from the match and hope to bring that to the next time we play."
The Lord Jeffs took hold of the match right away, winning all three doubles matches while losing only five games. They carried that momentum into singles play, where the Jumbos battled but had a difficult time winning points in crucial moments.
"I think that the scores weren't as reflective as they could have been as far as how the doubles matches went - especially No. 2 doubles (3?8) was much more of a fight than it looks like," Gann said. "I'd say the lopsided?looking scores can be attributed to Amherst playing better in the bigger points and taking advantage of whatever opportunities we gave them."
Gann was the source of the lone Tufts victory, taking a 7?5, 6?2 victory at the No. 4 singles position. Sophomore Eliza Flynn also fought hard to the finish, ultimately losing a 10?8 tiebreaker after winning her first game 6?4.
"[The tournament] went well for us," Gann said. "Obviously, Amherst didn't go as well as we would have liked, but we are taking a lot away from it."
The Jumbos will host the Conn. College Camels on Wednesday, and near the end of the season, on April 25, they will got another crack at the Lord Jeffs.
"We play Amherst again in a couple weeks, and we're ready to go out and work hard over these next couple weeks to fix some things we think we can do better next time," Gann said. "Hopefully next time, we come out on top."
