The women's tennis team's thrilling ride this season came to an end at the Northeast Regional Final in Williamstown on May 4, as defending national champion Williams outlasted the Jumbos 5-3. It was the third straight year the squad had been in the regional final. The loss spelled the end to one of the more successful seasons Tufts tennis has ever seen. The Jumbos finished the fall and spring season with a more than respectable 11-3 record, identical to their mark at the end of last season.
While a win over the Ephs would have sent Tufts to Nationals at the University of Redlands in California, there will still be Jumbo representation at the tournament. Senior co-captain Katie Nordstrom and sophomore number one singles player Jen Lejb are among the top-ranked doubles pairs in the nation, and have been selected to go to the tournament, which starts May 14. Freshman number two Becky Bram also will represent the Jumbos in the singles competition.
"It would be more special if we could have made it as a team, but this is certainly the next best thing," Nordstrom said. "It's what you work for."
Coach Jim Watson agrees that, even though the team couldn't make it, the individual honors are still welcome.
"These girls have worked so hard. It's a shame that they all won't be going, but I am still ecstatic that these three are getting this opportunity."
In the Regional final the Jumbos managed to win three of their five singles matches, but it was the doubles that did them in. The Ephs swept them in doubles 3-0 as they had just a week earlier in their 5-4 win over Tufts.
"We were definitely faltering in doubles towards the end of the year," Watson said. "We just needed to be more aggressive from the start and we weren't."
Similar to the first match with Williams, the Jumbos did not let a weak showing in doubles affect their consistent singles play. Lejb picked up where she had left off all season from the number one spot as she triumphed 6-4, 6-1 over Williams junior Stephanie Hall. Bram continued her remarkable freshman campaign with a 7-6, 6-3 win in the number two spot.
Tufts' third singles win came from arguably the team's most valuable player this season. Senior co-captain Iffy Saeed capped off her career with her 58th win 0-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the fifth spot. Saeed was 23-2 on the season. While she had played in the number six spot for most of the year, she was moved up for the Regionals based on her lights-out performance.
"[Iffy] should have been playing higher than number six all year," Watson said. "I can't stress enough how much she has meant to this program."
In order to get to the Regional final, the Jumbos had to get past the Middlebury Panthers, whom they had beaten 9-0 in the fall. The Jumbos were paced by their singles play again, as Lejb, Katie Nordstrom, junior Barclay Gang, Saeed, and freshman Lisa Miller all took matches against the Panthers.
In doubles, the lone Jumbo win came from Saeed and sophomore Ashley Weisman in the third slot.
While the squad did not reach all the goals they had set for themselves prior to the season, Watson believes the season was a success regardless.
"I had a lot of fun with this team," he said. "The problem is that we are in a region with two teams [Williams and Amherst] who are perennially in the hunt for a national championship. They know how to win and have tremendous players from the top of their rosters to the bottom. We would thrive even more than we have if we were in any other region, but that is not the way it is."
It appears as if the Jumbos will be restocked and reloaded to take another run at Williams and Amherst next year. They will lose only three seniors (Saeed, Nordstrom, and Emily Warshauer), and new talent is on its way.
"We should be very strong and very deep next year," Watson said. "We have two real good freshmen coming in to compliment an already talented team. We're just going to have to play up to our potential if we want to compete with the region's elite."
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