Two weeks after competing at the ITA Regional Championships at Middlebury, the Tufts men's tennis team headed to Bates to participate in the Wallach Invitational.
There, the Jumbos were represented by seniors Zach Ladwig and Austin Blau, junior Brian Tan, sophomores Rob Jacobson and Jay Glickman, and freshmen Brad Wong, Kevin Kelly and Ryan Rosen.
Jacobson and Glickman were the two competitors from Tufts to compete in the A singles flight.
Jacobson won his opening-round match against Jimmy Sherpa of Skidmore, 6-1, 6-4. In the second round, Jacobson faced stiff competition in Dan Carpenter of Trinity and fell, 6-4, 6-1.
Although Jacobson's victory in round one appeared easy, he acknowledged that a strong game plan was necessary to come out on top.
"Although the score reads that I won 6-1, 6-4, the match was not all that straightforward," Jacobson said. "Coach [Jaime] Kenney gave me a great game plan, and in the adverse situations of the match I was able to come through and play my best tennis."
Glickman, on the other hand, drew the second seed in the A singles flight and even though his match was a close one, he eventually fell 3-6, 6-1, 10-5.
"The match ultimately came down to a couple momentum shifts," he said. "After I won the first set, he came out strong and won some close games to take an early lead in the second."
The ten-point tiebreaker came down to just a few points as well.
"Anything can happen in a ten point tiebreaker, and he strung together a couple of well earned points in the beginning and again used the momentum to ultimately win," Glickman said.
In the B singles flight, Wong won his opening match against Peter Davis of Bowdoin 6-2, 2-6, 10-6 before falling to Middlebury's Jackson Frons 6-1, 6-0. Also in the B singles flight was fellow classmate Kevin Kelly, who lost his opening match to Skidmore's Gabe Steerman 2-6, 6-4, 10-5.
Tufts' best results came from the final two singles flights, where Tan and Ladwig each finished in the top four of their respective C and D flights.
In the C singles flight, Tan won his first match against Danny Lubarsky from Brandeis 7-5, 6-1 before beating Brenton Arnaboldi of Amherst 4-6, 6-1, 10-8. In the semifinals, Tan lost to Alan Jackson of Middlebury, 6-4, 6-3. Jackson would go on to win the B singles flight in the finals.
While Rosen competed along with Tan in the singles flight, he lost his opening match to Kei Yuen Leung of Skidmore 6-2, 6-2.
In the D singles flight, Ladwig won his first match by easily taking down John Neufeld of Bates 6-0, 6-0. He continued his campaign by winning another match against Jeff Cherkin of Brandeis 6-1, 6-1. In the semifinals, Ladwig went up against Amherst's Phillip Qu and lost in one of the closest matches of the tournament, 5-7, 6-2, 10-8.
The doubles side of the tournament only had two flights.
In the A flight, Glickman and Jacobson teamed up and lost to Eric Ruta and Patrick Ordway of Bates 8-3.
While Glickman and Jacobson's first outing as a doubles pair resulted in a loss, they both are confident moving forward as a team.
"Rob and I were definitely disappointed after the loss, but it was our first time playing together and we have a lot to build off of," Glickman said. "We have great team chemistry, and with a little more fine-tuning, I am confident that we can compete with any team in Div. III."
In the B flight, Tan and Rosen defeated Matt Carroll and Sam Bachelder of Colby 9-7(3) before losing to Allen Jackson and Teddy Fitzgibbons of Middlebury in a close match, 8-6.
The Wallach Invitational tournament wraps up play for the team's fall season, which serves as a tune-up for the main spring season.
"The fall season is always a great barometer of what kind of work we need to put in during the offseason," Glickman said. "All of the guys are extremely motivated and excited to push each other the next couple of months in order to be in the best shape possible for the spring."
Jacobson, too, is excited to work hard in the off-season with the team in order to improve and have a solid showing in the spring.
"The goal is always to try and figure out ways to be a better player, teammate and leader every single day," Jacobson said. "This is something that I really believe is the key to the team's success moving forward into the spring season. We are constantly doing the right things and putting in the necessary hours, and we are all very excited about what the spring will bring."
Tufts played just one dual match this fall, which resulted in an 8-1 win over Babson. They competed in three invitational tournaments - the Brown Invitational, the Middlebury Invitational and the Wallach Invitational - along with the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regional Championships.
The next time the Jumbos are back in action will be over spring break, when the team will travel to California to open the spring season.
