The women's tennis team suffered a disappointing weekend at Amherst, tying for fifth place out of eleven teams at the NESCAC championships. Amherst and Williams tied for first with 27 team points each. Tufts finished behind Bowdoin (19) and Trinity (12), and tied with Middlebury (11).
The Jumbos easily defeated Bowdoin and Trinity in head-to-head matches earlier this year, but swamped in a busy tournament with tough matchups and a new scoring system, the squad produced a lower-than-expected finish. In singles matches that counted towards team scoring, sophomore Lisa Miller was the only Jumbo to advance past the quarterfinals. She was named second team All-NESCAC as a result of her semifinal finish in the C singles tournament.
Coach Jim Watson was less than pleased with the new format, where opponents play a first-to-ten super-tiebreaker rather than a third set.
"It's a crapshoot, and I'm vehemently against it," he said. "You play hard for two hours, and then you might as well spin a racket. I know it sounds like sour grapes, but it just isn't a very good way to end things."
In A singles, freshman Jen Luten won her first round match over Bates' Heather Bracken 7-5, 6-1 before falling 6-4, 6-2 in the second round to Amherst's third ranked Tristan Hedrick. Luten fell to Hedrick 6-1, 6-2 in the Jumbos' loss to Amherst last week.
"I thought I played better this time," Luten said. "I played well; she just hit really hard. We had some tough matchups and it wasn't a great weekend for us."
Junior Jen Lejb fell to number four seed Sarah Hughes of Colby, 6-0, 6-1, in the quarterfinals after a tight 6-3, 6-7 (6-8), 10-8 win over Bowdoin's Paulette Hricko. Lejb battled pain from tendonitis in both calves throughout.
"She's in pain physically, especially in tournaments," Watson said. "It's hard for her to play back to back like that."
"It actually affected me a lot," Lejb admitted. "It hurts to stand up on it. But it was a heavy schedule, so I'm sure everyone's hurting."
In B singles, senior captain Barclay Gang and fourth seeded sophomore Becky Bram both lost out in the super-tiebreakers. Gang fell 1-6, 6-4, 10-7 to Middlebury's Sandy Spring in the first round, while Bram received a bye before falling 7-5, 1-6, 10-4 to Amherst's Hadley Miller in the round of 16.
In C Singles, freshman Kylyn Deary fell 6-4, 6-4 to Amherst's Kate Hudson in the second round. Miller fought her way out of the first round all the way to the semifinals. She dispatched Bates' Erin Bednarek without losing a game in the first round, and then upset number four seed Wallis Molchen of Amherst 6-2, 6-3 in the second round.
Miller had lost to Molchen 3-6, 6-4, 10-7 in the Jumbos' loss to Amherst last week. Miller then took out Trinity's Julie Hoffman 6-1, 6-2 in the quarterfinals to advance to the final four, where she fell to eventual runner-up Sanida Kikic of Bowdoin 6-3, 6-4.
"I played really well," Miller said. "We all had tough matchups; I had to play [Molchen] in the second round, but I thought I stepped up to the plate and got a big win for myself and for the team."
Junior Trina Spear captured the D Singles bracket for the second consecutive year. She breezed through the first two rounds without dropping a game, upended Colby's Tracy Nale 6-1, 6-4 in the semis, and then outlasted Middlebury freshman Emily Holick 7-5, 2-6, 10-4 to claim the title. Unfortunately for the Jumbos, Spear's achievement didn't count towards the team's score.
In A doubles, Luten and Lejb reached the finals and held a 5-2 lead before falling 8-6 to Williams' Steph Hall and Kate Troy. The third seeded team of Gang and junior Neda Pisheva fell 8-3 in the B doubles quarterfinals, while in C doubles, the duo of Bram and Miller dropped Wesleyan's Susannah Ragab and Victoria Santoro 8-0 before falling 8-3 to Trinity's Melissa White and Diana Goldman in the semifinals.
"I think everyone was disappointed," Lejb said. "But I have no doubt that everyone tried their hardest. There's still time to turn it around, if everyone stays focused, which I think we could use a little more of. Individually, we need to stay focused."
Watson, who said he will make some changes to the lineup this week, echoed those thoughts.
"The team just has to put aside all its personal concerns and look forward and just play," he said. "There can't be hurt feelings or individual problems."
The Jumbos will close out their regular season schedule at Williams on Sunday before moving on to compete in regionals.
"It was just really disappointing that we didn't step up," Watson said. "Last
year's team placed second, and I thought this year's team was better, but it just didn't happen. Now it's about coming out at Williams and regaining momentum."
