They run routes with Sharpies in their socks, "Cheddar Bob" themselves in nightclubs and overdose on sleeping pills. They are the instigators of the most NFL scandals, are the biggest trash talkers in the league, and rarely survive more than a few years with a franchise before getting the boot. They are the modern-day NFL wide receivers -- a position unlike any other in the sports world.
The perennially top-10 ranked co-ed sailing team is on a slippery slope. It will have to start turning things around if it doesn't want to miss the mark for both national championship events for the second straight year.
Last week, Tufts field hockey coach Tina McDavitt was named one of 24 members on the Team USA field hockey roster for 2009-10. McDavitt will have the opportunity to play in the 2010 Indoor Pan Am Cup next March -- an opportunity she turned down this past fall in order to lead the Jumbos to an appearance in the NCAA title game -- and potentially have the opportunity to represent the United States in the 2011 Indoor World Cup.
The nationally ranked No. 7 men's lacrosse team relied on its powerful offense to rebound from a disappointing loss to Middlebury over the weekend with a 18-13 victory against No. 15 Endicott Tuesday night. Playing on the road in Beverly, the Jumbos never trailed against the Gulls as they finally succeeded in putting the game away with seven fourth-quarter goals.
The Boston Bruins open the 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs tonight by facing a familiar foe -- the Montreal Canadiens. The two teams have met on 31 previous occasions in the postseason, an NHL record. In 24 of those series, the Canadiens have gotten the better of the Bruins, and Boston has not beaten Montreal in a seven-game series since 1994.
Easter weekend is supposed to be golf heaven. But not even Jim Nantz would have been able to wax poetic had he seen the conditions on the links at the Hampton Inn Classic on Saturday.
Just two days removed from their closest game of the year, a 6-5 win over Wellesley College, the Jumbos rolled to an 11-2 non-conference win at Bridgewater State College on Tuesday afternoon, led by freshman Lena Cantone. Cantone, who was just a triple away from the cycle, accounted for eight of Tufts' runs against the Bears, driving in seven and scoring one herself. All of Cantone's RBIs came with two outs and helped put the stamp on the five-inning victory, the second time this season that the Jumbos have mercy-ruled Bridgewater State. In the top of the second inning, Tufts broke open a scoreless match with four runs, as Cantone plated three runners on a double to the right-center gap. The first-year then tacked on a two-out, two-run single to cap off a five-run third inning. Cantone finished her day with a two-run home run to deep left field in the fifth. Aside from Cantone, the Jumbos, who pounded out 13 hits, were led by senior Maya Ripecky, who was a perfect three-for-three, and senior quad-captain Roni Herbst, who scored three runs and drove in another. Tinker added two more hits for Tufts, which improved to 27-0 on the year. In the pitcher's circle, sophomore Izzie Santone got the win, scattering four hits and one unearned run over four innings of work, walking just one Bears batter and striking out a pair. The Jumbos return to action on Wednesday with a doubleheader at Babson (16-16) before traveling to Bowdoin for the last weekend series of NESCAC play.
Which team is the one that no one in the Eastern Conference wants to face in the playoffs? That would be the Chicago Bulls.
The adage "it's better to be lucky than good" is perhaps the biggest cliché in sports, but it perfectly describes yesterday's non-conference contest between the Jumbo baseball team and the Bentley Falcons.
The Malden River was busy once again this past Saturday, and though the times were slowed by rough conditions, the men's crew emerged with some strong performances.
The first three quarters of the men's lacrosse game last night may have been a little too close for comfort, but a seven-goal offensive explosion in the fourth led the nationally ranked No. 7 Jumbos to a convincing 18-13 victory over No. 15 Endicott. The name of the game for the Jumbos was high-percentage shooting off of solid ball movement. Tufts' offensive movement, both on and off the ball, was in synch from the get-go. Sophomores Matt Witko and D.J. Hessler notched two goals for the Jumbos less than five minutes into the first quarter, as Tufts' quick ball movement often left the Endicott defense out of position and allowed Tufts to gain a good shooting angle. Witko and Hessler each ended the game with three goals and an assist. Hessler's success came off his trademarked low-post movement and inside rolls, while Witko's goals showed his isolation skills from the top of the box as well as his deadly-accurate long-range shot. Senior Kevin Williams also played a particularly good offensive game, scoring two goals and dishing out four assists. Williams put in what became the game-winning 14th goal for Tufts by swatting a ball that was bouncing around the crease past a discombobulated Endicott keeper. Also chipping in with two goals apiece were sophomore Ryan Molloy, senior Clem McNally, junior Doug DiSesa and junior tri-captain Mike Droesch. See tomorrow's Daily for further coverage.
In an interesting and unforeseen turn of events for the women's crew on Saturday, the two fastest Jumbo marks against competition from Wesleyan, Wellesley and Bates were not posted by the first varsity rowers.
The Mets opened up their new digs yesterday while the Yankees will hold their home opener on Thursday. Citi Field and the new Yankee Stadium are state-of-the-art stadiums that will serve to relieve the somewhat dilapidated Shea and old Yankee Stadium. Nevertheless, even putting sentimentality aside, it's kind of ridiculous that these monstrosities were built. The Yankees and Mets have boasted two of the highest payrolls in the game for years, and per Forbes they are the two of the three franchises that, along with the Red Sox, generate the most revenue in baseball. So they've been doing just fine with whatever dumps they play in. But in their never-ending effort to make the almighty buck, the teams turned to the city to help the poor Steinbrenners and Wilpons fund sweetheart deals for new ballparks. The Yankees originally received around a billion dollars in tax-free bonds before going back to the city for another $370 million. This is taxpayer money. Sure, a handful of new permanent jobs were created (around two dozen — many more were promised) and a lot of temporary construction work was enabled, but $1.4 billion? The dealings between the Bronx and the Bombers were underhanded, too. Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) cried corruption on the disparity in the appraisals of land, as the $204-million figure the city used, which was set by a city agency, strongly differed from the $40-million estimate by an appraiser. As a taxpayer, I feel that I own part of these stadiums. I won't say that I deserve free admission, since that wouldn't be realistic. I understand that in addition to paying for the stadium, I will also deal with raised ticket prices. That's all part of the deal that I implicitly agreed to upon my taking residence in New York City in first grade. However, I will say that when I do buy my own tickets, I ask for a helmet of Dippin' Dots on the house. Those are delicious. That is all. The new stadiums cost the city $500 million, and the city is giving both the Yankees and Mets discounts of at least $500 million over their 40-year leases. The Mets, though, while not costing the city as much money as the Yankees, do face other problems. Citibank purchased the new stadium's naming rights for $20 million per year over 20 years. Before the Mets could even break the tape on the new ballpark, Citibank was bestowed $45 million in bailout funds. And Citibank's not even relinquishing its naming rights! That means I'm paying for the naming rights to the field. I would like it from now on to be called the J-Breeze Thunderdome. That is all. There's an even worse problem going on in Florida. I would never trash Larry Beinfest and Jeffrey Loria's business acumen. The Marlins continually operate at a positive income and understand how the revenue curve and franchise appreciation and all that good stuff work. Hey, Donald Sterling operates his franchise as a business, a money-making one, but that doesn't stop people from hating him. Anyway, what the Marlins have done is receive public financing for a stadium that will cost the city $2 billion. Miami needs a new stadium. The Marlins' attendance figures were embarrassing, and that's not simply a matter of them fielding an embarrassing team. The stadium was located in the middle of nowhere. But that's no reason to have the city pay for your mistake. So the Marlins have done what the Nationals and Yankees and Mets have all done in recent years, except they've taken it to an extreme. The city will finance three-fourths of construction, which should be completed by 2012, while the Marlins will keep all stadium revenues. And all this is happening with the economic crisis in the forefront of our minds. Again, I don't blame the teams. The Yankees, Mets and Marlins are within their rights to ask for every penny they can get from their respective cities. But whoever's running these joints — Bloomberg in New York or Flo Rida in Florida, I don't know — whoever it is that's allowing this excessive spending to happen under their nose while every city in America is swirling in financial turmoil is being irresponsible. I just think attention must be paid.
Last April, the Arizona Diamondbacks were the best team in baseball, racing out to a remarkable 20-8 start and giving themselves an early five-game cushion on their NL West rivals. With their aces Brandon Webb and Dan Haren dealing and their then-20-year-old prodigy Justin Upton playing far beyond his years, the Snakes were almost a lock to reach the postseason. Little did we know that the key word in that last sentence would be "almost." Over the remainder of the season, Bob Melvin's team amassed a disappointing 62-72 mark, and the Diamondbacks eventually missed the playoffs by two games. Upton, who began the year with a torrid .340/.385/.577 line and five homers in 97 April at-bats, receded rapidly, finishing the year with a mediocre .250 batting average and only 15 total taters. Many of the outfielder's youthful teammates followed suit, and even with Webb and Haren contending for the NL Cy Young award, the D'backs simply couldn't stay afloat. This winter, the Diamondbacks lost Orlando Hudson, Adam Dunn and Randy Johnson to free agency; GM Josh Byrnes replaced Hudson with Felipe Lopez and Johnson with Jon Garland, while pinning his hopes on Eric Byrnes' successful recovery from torn hamstrings. Clearly, no significant improvements were made to the Arizona roster, with the team's financially strapped management instead hoping that the maturation of youngsters like Stephen Drew and Chris Young at the plate, plus Max Scherzer on the mound, would lift them to the top of the division. Unfortunately, the Diamondbacks have not slithered away from the competition to start the 2009 season and are instead mired in the NL West cellar with a 2-5 record after one week of play. They were defeated twice in three games in both of their opening series, first by the Colorado Rockies and then by the Los Angeles Dodgers. Brandon Webb is on the 15-day disabled list with an ailing right shoulder, and Dan Haren has already been tagged with two tough-luck losses. Their top young hitters are either at or below the Mendoza line, with Upton yet to collect his first knock of the year. Put all of that together, and it's not hard to see why the Diamondbacks have been outscored 40-24 in their first seven games. Obviously, there is ample time for the Snakes to turn things around, but their schedule dictates that this must happen immediately. Major League Baseball's scheduling gods dealt the Diamondbacks an agenda that has them playing 18 of their first 21 games in the friendly confines of Chase Field. They've already wasted a third of those contests with a miserable first week, and recent history dictates that such a trend cannot continue. In particular, the D'backs were a stellar 48-33 at their home ballpark last season but managed only a 34-47 mark on the road. They won't have the luxury of playing in Phoenix for most of May and June, so ending April at or near the top of the division is critical. Righting the ship certainly won't be easy, especially with Webb on the shelf for at least the next two weeks, but Arizona's opponents for the rest of the month are manageable. Bob Melvin's squad will host the St. Louis Cardinals and then make a quick weekend trip up to play the San Francisco Giants before returning home to play the Rockies, Giants and Chicago Cubs, with off-days comfortably placed on the 16th and 23rd. A team could not have asked for a much better opening slate, but the Diamondbacks have yet to take advantage of it. Beyond the cushy schedule, there are plenty of other reasons for the Chase Field faithful to keep hope alive in the face of a rocky first week. Promising young starter Scherzer will make his 2009 debut on Tuesday after compiling a solid 3.05 ERA and 66/21 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 56 innings during his rookie year. The young bats of Drew, Young, Upton and Conor Jackson have far too much potential to stay cold for long. And it's hard to imagine Dan Haren staying winless if he maintains the tidy 2.08 ERA and 0.77 WHIP that gave the D'backs a great chance to emerge victorious in his first two starts. But with all of that said, the burden falls on the players' shoulders, and they must show that they can contend with the Dodgers, Giants and Rockies over the coming two weeks. The NL West is full of teams with fatal flaws and could be won with a .500 record, so it's nowhere near time for the Diamondbacks to concede defeat. It is time, however, for the young Snakes to step up to the challenge.
2007 was a great year for the Cleveland Indians. They rode CC Sabathia, that year's Cy Young Award winner, and Fausto Carmona, who went 19-8 with a 3.06 ERA, to a major league-best 96 wins and, with some help from gnats, made it all the way to the American League Championship Series before falling in seven games to the eventual World Series winner Boston Red Sox. Last year, however, things fell apart. Injuries to Victor Martinez and Travis Hafner zapped their offensive potency, and Carmona regressed to a 5.44 ERA in 120.2 innings. Things got so bad they were forced to trade Sabathia at midseason in order to get something back for the pending free agent, and the team drifted to a mediocre 81-81 record and third place in the AL Central. The lone bright spot for the Tribe in 2008 was the performance of Cliff Lee, whose amazing comeback year garnered the team its second Cy Young in as many years. Coming into this season, Cleveland fans had reason to be optimistic. Hafner and Martinez had recovered from their respective injuries, Lee still fronted the rotation, and Carmona seemed to have figured things out this spring, compiling a 2.67 ERA. In addition, the team had finally inked a legitimate closer in Kerry Wood, while also making relatively shrewd maneuvers in trading for utility man Mark DeRosa and signing the finally healthy Carl Pavano to a one-year deal. But so far this season, things could not have gone much worse for the Indians. They have begun the season a miserable 1-6, including starting 0-5 for the first time in 24 years. Their current record is better only than the winless Washington Nationals and equal to the hapless Houston Astros — neither of whom came into the year with feasible playoff aspirations. Their problems have started with the pitching. Lee looks more like the pitcher who spent the majority of 2007 in AAA, going 0-2 with a 9.90 ERA in two starts, while Carmona gave up six runs in five innings pitched in his first start of the season last week. Through seven contests, the team has given up an average of 7.9 runs to its opponents. But despite this lackluster start to the year, there is still reason for the Indians to hope. Hafner and Martinez do in fact look fully recovered, hitting .240 with 3 home runs and .367 with 2 home runs [updated tonight], respectively, while the team still features arguably the best all-around player in the game in center fielder Grady Sizemore. In addition, they return Kelly Shoppach, who emerged last year to lead all American League catchers in home runs, and up-and-comer Shin-Soo Choo, whose .946 OPS in 317 at-bats last year was higher than that of Hanley Ramirez, Chase Utley and Josh Hamilton, to name a few. So there's no doubt that the offense can and will produce. The success of this team will come down, not surprisingly, to the pitching. First and foremost, Lee and Carmona have to recapture their Cy Young-caliber forms. The fact that Lee has 10 strikeouts in 10 innings pitched is encouraging and suggests that he is possibly only a few tweaks away from becoming the ace he was last year. Furthermore, it is far too early to write Carmona off, particularly considering that he is still just 25 years old. But unfortunately for the Tribe, even in the best-case scenario, two pitchers don't make a rotation. Carl Pavano, who had compiled all of 45.2 innings in the previous two years combined, showed signs of rust, to put it kindly, in his first outing of the year, allowing nine earned runs in a single inning before getting pulled. It goes without saying that he'll have to be more effective if he's to be the team's third starter. The Indians will also need fourth starter Anthony Reyes, a former top prospect in the St. Louis Cardinals system who fell so far as to be released last year, to remember whatever it is he figured out in Cleveland at the end of last season when he put together a 1.83 ERA in six starts. Luckily for the Indians, they should be effective in close games thanks to their bullpen. The Rafaels — Perez and Betancourt — could be one of the best middle reliever tandems in the league, as they were two years ago (and neither one did too poorly last year, either), while Wood went 34-for-40 in save opportunities last season and can simply dominate, as shown by his 84 strikeouts in 66 innings. So what if Cleveland started out the year poorly? Right now, the Toronto Blue Jays and San Diego Padres are leading their respective divisions, and it would be a major surprise if either of them finished the year higher than fourth. Yes the Indians may look bad now, but they've still got 154 games left to prove themselves.
Sophomore shortstop David Leresche of the baseball team earned NESCAC Player of the Week honors for leading the Jumbos' offensive charge over their recent 4-1 run, starting with an April 7 contest against Brandeis. Leresche started off the week with a 2-for-3, one-run performance against the Judges and never looked back. In a four-game series against conference rival Middlebury, Leresche went 7-for-11 at the dish with six runs and nine RBI. He reached base a total of 13 times in his 17 plate appearances against the Panthers, walking twice and being hit by four pitches. Ironically, his best single-game performance came in Tufts' only loss of the week, as he went 3-for-4 with two doubles, three runs and four RBI. In total, over the course of five games, Leresche batted a gaudy .643, reaching base at a clip of .762 and compiling a .786 slugging percentage. For good measure, he also went 5-for-5 on stolen base attempts. For the season, Leresche leads the Jumbos in almost every important offensive category, including batting average (.375), on-base percentage (.511), slugging percentage (.569), runs (15) and RBI (20).
For the third weekend in a row, the nationally ranked No. 30 men's tennis team saw mixed results, recording both a win over non-conference foe Vassar and a loss to NESCAC rival Williams. This time, however, the Jumbo squad walked tall in Saturday's match at home against the nationally ranked No. 5 Ephs, a team that has closed the year among the top 10 since the 2000 season. Tufts fell 7-2, but the result was an improvement, as the Ephs have traditionally taken these matches by larger margins of victory. This year, close matches in doubles and singles as well as momentum built off Friday's nixing of Vassar all contributed to the Jumbos' competitiveness. "Overall, I'm not disappointed with our match against Williams," junior tri-captain Dan Landers said. "Last year, we lost to them 9-0, and they're always a very good team, and this year we were close to beating them in some of the matches that we lost, so the match could've been somewhat closer." From the onset, the No. 1 doubles team of freshman Kai Victoria and sophomore Jake Fountain set the tone for the match, putting up a staunch fight against its Williams opponents. After breaking the Ephs to force a tiebreaker at 8-8, the Jumbo duo found itself trailing 5-2 in the tiebreak. Victoria and Fountain then found an opening to regain their footing with defensive maneuvering and won the next five points to take the tiebreaker and the match 9-8 (5). "Jake and Kai played a great match," junior Andrew Rosen said. "At around 6-5 or 7-6, [Fountain and Victoria] broke back and it went to a tie-breaker. We were down 5-2 in the tie-breaker and in a huge win we came back to win 7-5 … It was a tremendous match and really showed [Fountain's and Victoria's] mental toughness and their ability to make some clutch shots." In singles, the Jumbos were on their game despite a score that may suggest otherwise. Junior tri-captain Bryan Wilner pulled off Tufts' only singles victory at the No. 6 position. With a combination of strong serves and commanding forehand shots, Wilner controlled the tempo of the match, silencing his opponent in straight sets 6-4, 6-3. While some players found success on the court, many others had some hit-and-miss opportunities. Freshman Sam Laber played in the No. 5 position and managed a competitive first set marked by long volleys and battles for points but was unable to secure the win. Due to an injury incurred by junior tri-captain Jon Trott, the lineup shifted, moving Rosen to the No. 2 position. Rosen nabbed the first set from the old foe from his hometown of Armonk, N.Y., but fell in the next two to drop the match 3-6, 6-2, 6-1. "[Rosen] and his opponent were from the same town, so they knew each other's games pretty well going into the match," Landers said. "That can be a bad thing, especially for a player like [Rosen], who really thrives against players that are unfamiliar with his game. [Rosen] really battled it out and took his opponent to three sets … It showed the whole team how determined he is on the court." In Friday's match against the 9-7 Vassar Violets, Tufts took a steady hand against its non-conference opponent. While the Violets are unranked nationally, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association has ranked Vassar No. 11 in the Northeast, just one spot below Tufts. After posting a close 5-4 win last season against the Violets, the Jumbos had a markedly stronger performance this year. In doubles play, Tufts took two out of three matches, with Trott and freshman Morrie Bossen handing their opponents an 8-4 loss in the No. 3 position. The duo capitalized on serve opportunities and made key cross-court returns that built momentum going into the singles game. With Victoria out due to illness, Laber stepped up to take his spot in No. 2 doubles. Making a flawless transition, the Laber-Fountain team made few errors and played a low game to outperform their Violets rivals 8-6. "This year's match was much different than last year's," Rosen said. "[Victoria] was sick and couldn't compete in the match, so initially that made things difficult, but [Laber] and [Fountain] played really well at No. 2 doubles and [Bossen's] and [Trott's] win at No. 3 doubles gave us a lot of confidence going into singles." In singles, all matches were decided in straight sets, five of which went the Jumbos' way. At the No. 3 position, Rosen overcame his opponent in a tiebreaker in the first set before finishing him off in the second for a 7-6(3), 6-2 win. At No. 6 singles, Laber pulled out a victory in commanding style and gave up just two games over the two sets. The Violets' only singles win came at No. 4 singles, as sophomore Tony Carucci held a solid 5-1 lead in the first set tie-break but unraveled to fall 7-6(3) and lost the match with a second set score of 6-4. "Last year, we beat Vassar 5-4 and I ended up playing the same opponent I did this year, winning 6-4 in the third set," Rosen said. "It was about as competitive as you could be. This year, though, we played much more consistent as a team and we didn't let injuries set us back from our goals." On Friday, Tufts will take on the Colby Mules in Waterville, Maine. The Jumbos have been unable to secure victory against the Mules since the 2004-05 season, but they have had close run-ins with their NESCAC foe in the past, falling 5-4 last year. With only two NESCAC matches left this season, the Tufts squad hopes to meet its goal of taming the nationally unranked Mules before facing off against the nationally ranked No. 6 Middlebury Panthers. "The Colby match is one we cannot lose," Landers said. "I think we all feel the same way that we do not want to lose against them. One of our goals this season was to beat Bates and beat Colby, which would've gotten us into the NESCACs. We already saw what happened against Bates and, going forward, we just want to do what we haven't been able to do in the last couple years, which is to just beat Colby. It's a very doable thing, we just haven't been able to pull it out."
There is no substitute for a solid goalie. Great offense and stifling defense can carry a team so far, but in the end, great goaltending, above all else, can win a championship. So far this season, women's lacrosse's Sara Bloom has proven just that, earning NESCAC Player of the Week honors yesterday for her outstanding performance. In the past week, the Jumbos' sophomore goaltender came up huge for her squad, posting some of the best numbers of her career to lead the team to its sixth straight win and its 10th of season. Starting with wins over Gordon and Wheaton during the week, Bloom and the Jumbos then took on NESCAC rival Middlebury in a crucial conference matchup on Saturday. Bloom posted 11 saves in the 12-7 defeat of the Panthers, allowing her lowest goal total of the season and helping defend the Jumbos' spot atop the NESCAC standings, where they remain tied with Colby. With her 103 saves this year, Bloom now leads all NESCAC goaltenders with a .566 save percentage and sits third in Goals Against Average. In her award-winning week, Bloom posted a .641 save percentage and a 7.49 goals against average, standing tall between Tufts' opponents and the back of the cage.
The women's tennis team might have come out of its matchups with Amherst and Williams last week with losses, but one thing is clear: The gap between the Jumbos and two of the elite programs in the country isn't all that wide. That fact was on display Saturday afternoon in Williamstown, Mass., when the nationally ranked No. 14 Jumbos battled the No. 1 Ephs to a narrow 6-3 setback and fell to 4-2 in NESCAC play on the season. In a contest that was closer than the final score indicated, Williams needed slim victories at first doubles and fifth singles to help tip the final score in its favor. "I was very proud of how our team played," coach Kate Bayard said. "We saw Williams win the championship last year, and we respect them a lot as a team. Our whole team played with a new level of composure and spirit on Saturday. I know we'll make great gains out of both of these losses." A highly-anticipated matchup atop the doubles lineup was as closely contested as advertised, with Williams' duo of senior co-captain Cary Gibson and sophomore Nikki Reich edging Tufts' tandem of sophomore Julia Browne and junior captain Meghan McCooey, 8-6. In a contest featuring the top two ranked teams in the Northeast region, Gibson and Reich improved to 2-0 lifetime against the Jumbos' top pairing, which lost for the first time in eight career dual-match appearances. "I think it was a good match overall, but we were just a little bit more hesitant," McCooey said. "We let a couple games get away, and that was enough to just give them the win. You just have to be on every single shot and every point against a team like that. They were just a little bit better than us that day." The win sent Williams into singles play with a 2-1 lead. But both McCooey and Browne rebounded in impressive fashion, taking down the second- and third-ranked players in the nation, respectively, to net the Jumbos their final two victories of the afternoon. At the top spot, Browne turned a potential showdown against Grace Baljon into a one-sided affair, blowing past the Ephs junior 6-1, 6-0 and improving to 4-0 against top-10 opponents across dual-match and tournament play this season. McCooey, meanwhile, battled her way to a 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 victory over Gibson at second singles, avenging a loss she suffered in the semifinals of last year's NCAA Championships. "Win or lose the doubles, [Browne and McCooey] would have had the same level of intensity, and that's one of the things that makes both of them so dependable out there," Bayard said. "They're both so good at staying in the moment. [Browne] is always focused, but Saturday she was in a complete zone. [McCooey] showed the type of level-headedness and confidence she knew she needed in order to win. I was proud of both of them." Buoyed by the victories at the top of its singles lineup, Tufts was well within striking distance, trimming Williams' lead to 4-3. But the Ephs closed the match with wins at fifth and sixth singles to account for the final margin. The Jumbos didn't go quietly, however, as freshman Jenn LaCara mounted a serious challenge against junior Ashley Parsons at No. 5, taking the first set before Parsons rallied to win the final two. Tufts' first win of the day came at third doubles, where the first-time pairing of junior Erica Miller and sophomore Hillary Rosen knocked off Williams' duo of freshman Kristin Alotta and junior Genny Loomis, 8-6. Against a team as deep as the Ephs, it was a particularly noteworthy accomplishment for the Jumbos to play competitively at the bottom of both the singles and doubles lineups. "I knew that we had a good shot [at the] top half of the lineup, but I think it really showcased what the team is all about to have our No. 3 doubles team coming through," Bayard said. "To have Hillary, someone who generally hasn't been starting much, come through and just play huge tennis and pull through, I think that really shows the strength of our team." After battling through its toughest competition of the season, Tufts will next take the court on Thursday, when it hosts NESCAC rival Wesleyan before finishing up its home slate with a matchup against Middlebury on Saturday. Heading into its final regular season matches, the Jumbos carry with them extra confidence from their performances over the past week. "I think it was great for boosting everybody's confidence to know that we can compete with the top teams in the country," McCooey said. "Now it's really sinking in that we can do it, and I feel like our whole team truly believes it. Especially with the Williams match, right down the lineup, everyone was playing with such heart and just going after their shots. I think if we keep this up, we'll start getting the wins."
