The Women's tennis team, ranked 17th in the nation and third in New England, got its fall campaign off on the right foot on Wednesday, clobbering the Smith College Pioneers 9-0 on the Voute Courts in the first match of its 2005 season. The win was the first for newly hired head coach Kate Bayard, whose Jumbos surrendered a total of just 19 games in nine matches against the Pioneers.
"A win is always a win," senior co-captain Lisa Miller added. "We take every team seriously, and playing well as a team in the first match of the season and getting our first win sets a great tone for us to move forward with into the season."
Tufts cruised in the doubles matches to start off the day, with senior tri-captains Lisa Miller and Becky Bram leading the charge with an 8-1 beating of Smith's top two players, senior captain Camille Whitney and freshman Francesca Albrezzi. Jumbo freshmen Jessica Knez and Mari Homma triumphed at second doubles, defeating Smith sophomores Seiko Fujii and Catherine Lydecker by the same score of 8-1. Sophomore Megan Gentzler and freshman Andrea Cenko also were successful at third doubles, defeating a pair of Smith freshmen, Andrea Dreskin and MyDzung Chi, 8-2.
Things didn't get much more difficult on the singles side, as Bram kicked things off with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Whitney at number one. Miller, who was playing in her first singles match since returning from a year abroad, saw little decline in her game, defeating Albrezzi 6-0, 6-1 at second singles.
"I feel like I played smart today," Miller said. "I was nervous and excited to play a match after being away all year last year, and I got over the initial nerves and played well. It's strange and exciting to come back to almost a completely brand new team for my senior year, and I'm excited to see what the season and the year bring."
Knez picked up her first collegiate singles win at third singles, easily defeating doubles opponent Fujii 6-0, 6-3, while classmates Gentzler (6-0, 6-1) and Cenko (6-0, 6-2) also picked up their first collegiate W's at fifth and sixth singles, respectively. Sophomore Lani Ackerman completed the sweep of the Pioneers, though she had to work a bit harder than her teammates to do so. Ackerman struggled in the first set but was able to pull away 7-5, and then cruised over Smith freshman Dzung Chi 6-1 in the second.
The win was the Jumbos' first without junior All-Americans Jen Luten and Kylyn Deary, who are abroad in Italy for the fall semester. Their absence could allow the squad to develop its younger talent and be that much deeper come spring, when the duo will be back in action as Tufts vies for a team bid to the NCAA tournament.
"Right now we're just taking our season one match at a time," Miller said. "We're excited for the girls to come back in the spring and we're confident that we'll be very strong then, but right now we want every girl on the team to play as well as they can and feel good about their contribution to this team."
The Jumbos will look to continue their solid play through the rest of the fall season. In the immediate future lies an away match against the Colby Mules on Saturday, followed by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association tournament at Bowdoin the following weekend.
