The women's tennis team had a very disappointing showing at the first ever NESCAC Women's Tennis Championship this weekend. After coming in third place overall at the New England Championships in October, which featured NESCAC foes as well as other non-conference opponents, the Jumbos finished sixth out of a field of ten in the NESCAC Tournament, the team's last competition of the season barring an NCAA berth.
One of the few highlights of the tournament came at the banquet on the first night, when Jim Watson, Tufts' head coach for the last 20 years, was named the NESCAC Coach of the Year.
"It was a big surprise to us," captain Jen Lai said. "I think the recognition reflects how he has progressed over the past couple of years."
But the team's happiness for Watson's award was soon mitigated by the exceedingly difficult draws for the Tufts players. In the first and second rounds, every Jumbo player had to face either a player from Amherst or Williams, the only two teams that beat the Tufts all year, and the two teams that finished ahead of the Jumbos at the New England Championships last fall.
"It was an absolute farce," Watson said of the pairings.
The Women's A singles tournament is a prime example of the controversial seeding. Sophomore Katie Nordstrom, Tufts' number-one player, was not seeded in the draw because she had withdrawn from a match, which she was winning, against Trinity's Diana Goldman in the fall season. Goldman was given the win and the fourth seed in the A flight (only the top four were seeded). As a result, Nordstrom faced the reigning Division III National Champion, Amherst's Jamie Cohen, in the first round. Cohen, who had beaten Nordstrom earlier in the week 6-0, 6-1, had a little more trouble this time, but emerged with a 6-1, 6-4 victory.
The other Jumbo playing the A flight, freshman Barclay Gang, was forced to move up from the B flight because junior Erika Lee could not attend the tournament because of the MCAT. Gang's first-round opponent was William's number-one player, Caroline Wasserman, who was ranked second in this draw. Gang lost the match 6-2, 6-2.
"Barclay could beat more than half the kids in the A draw," Watson said.
Similarly, in the B draw, sophomores Emily Warshauer and Iffy Saeed met up with the number-one and two ranked players in the draw in Williams' Tracey Cheung and Amherst's Susanna Burke in the second rounds. Warshauer lost 6-1, 6-2 to Cheung, who went on to win the draw.
"Emily's playing great tennis, but she couldn't even get out of the starting blocks," Watson explained.
Saeed, on the other hand, stormed out of the gate, and was able to out-duel Burke, emerging with a 6-4, 7-5 victory.
"I knew that I could compete with her. I just played her point for point," Saeed said. "I had nothing to lose, and she had everything to lose." Saeed went on to beat Trinity's Olga Bogatyrenko 6-4, 6-4 to make it to the semifinal round. In the semifinals, Saeed, exhausted from her match earlier that day, lost a tough three set match to Williams' Brooke Gibson, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
"We were pretty equal, but she won some crucial points, and that was the difference," Saeed said.
The C singles saw more of the same for Tufts. Sophomore Rachel Hammerman, who was the number three seed, had to face Amherst's Wallis Molchen in the first round, while junior Jen Lai was pitted against Williams' Steph Hall in the second round. Hall and Molchen proved to be too tough, dispensing of the Jumbos players in straight sets.
"It was a real screw-job," Saeed said of the tournament. "It's really not possible that it was random," she said, referring to the draws. Coach Watson did put an appeal through, but NESCAC officials insisted that the draw was random.
"Teams that we had beaten 8-1 and 9-0 came out ahead of us," Watson said.
In addition to Amherst and Williams, who were second and fourth in the nation, respectively, at the end of the fall season, the three teams that finished ahead of Tufts were Trinity, Wesleyan, and Middlebury. Tufts handily defeated all three during the fall season, 8-1, 9-0, and 7-2, respectively.
Watson referred to the tournament as "a disaster."
The doubles draws were kinder to the Jumbos, and Tufts' top two doubles teams, Nordstrom and Saeed, and Gang and Warshauer, both made it to the semifinals before being ousted by an Amherst or Williams squad.
Despite a disappointing weekend, the Jumbos are still hopeful that their regular season record and their performance at New Englands will give them an NCAA Tournament berth.
"If this tournament factors into our not making Nationals, I will raise hell," Watson said.
Tournament bids are announced on May 2.
