The women's tennis team entered Tuesday's match at No. 3 Amherst looking for both a big upset against a top opponent and an all-important NESCAC win.
Neither of these wishes came true for the Jumbos, however, as the Lord Jeffs soundly trounced No. 27 Tufts, 8-1 on the Amherst courts. The loss dropped Tufts to 6-6 on the season. However, the final score does not fully reflect the Jumbos' efforts.
"Yes, Amherst played well Tuesday," junior Jennifer Luten said. "But in regards to the whole match, I feel we were right on their toes. We had some very close matches in singles straight through the lineup. We definitely realized they were beatable."
Senior co-captain Becky Bram agreed with Luten's assessment.
"Tuesday was definitely a tough one," Bram said. "[Amherst is] a really strong team, and all of our matches were really close. Everyone fought really hard out there."
Tufts' lone victory came at the No. 6 singles slot when junior Silvia Schmid outlasted Lord Jeff freshman Anuja Ankola, 6-1, 5-7, 10-6. Despite losing the rest of the singles matches, Tufts kept it relatively close against many of Amherst's players. At No. 1, Luten fell to senior Kristen Raverta in two sets after losing the first in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (2), 6-4. Bram, competing at No. 2, lost to Amherst sophomore Alicia Menezes (6-4, 6-4).
Tufts junior Stephanie Ruley had the toughest loss of the afternoon. After capturing the first set, she dropped the next two to Lord Jeff sophomore Monica Snyder at the No. 3 slot and ended up losing, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. At No. 4, Amherst sophomore Jennifer Murphy overwhelmed Jumbo freshman Jessica Knez in straight sets, 6-0, 6-2. Rounding out the singles, junior Kylyn Deary (who is a Senior Staff Writer for the Daily), playing at No. 5, fell to Lord Jeff senior Hadley Miller (6-4, 6-4).
"I think that everyone played great singles," Luten said. "Everyone fought hard and played really strong. As I said before, we matched up very well against them in singles and we were right on their toes."
Bram also felt that the statistics fail to tell the whole story.
"The match score really did not reflect how close it was," Bram said. "A lot of matches could have gone either way, and they just didn't go our way. For a lot of matches, it was just a matter of points that Amherst won."
The squad's doubles teams fared no better than singles, picking up a total of six games to Amherst's 24. At No. 1 doubles, Deary and Luten took only one game from the team of Menezes and Raverta in the 8-1 loss. From No. 2, Snyder and Murphy trumped Knez and Ruley by an identical 8-1 score. Tufts freshman Mari Homma saw court time on Tuesday when she teamed up with Bram at No. 3 doubles, but Ankola and Miller proved too much, downing Homma and Bram 8-4.
"Amherst definitely outplayed us in doubles," Luten said. "We have been working on our doubles a lot lately and we need to step it up even more."
Given the injuries the team has suffered over the course of the season, it has been difficult for Tufts to cement its doubles lineup.
"We've been playing around with different combinations of players," Bram said. "We're trying to find the best combination and it has been tough because there have been a lot of injuries."
Entering the match, the squad was keen to tally up the victory.
"We have always been somewhat rivals with Amherst," Luten said. "We wanted to beat and surprise them. Going into the match we were pumped and ready to fight. That definitely showed in our gutsy singles matches."
Tufts was unfazed from the outset by the Jeffs' superior ranking.
"We went there with a lot of confidence to go out and have a good day," Bram said. "Even though we lost doubles, there were so many close singles matches and we were pretty close to winning right through the singles. I'm sure Amherst didn't think it was an easy win."
Back at .500 on the season with its 6-6 record, the Jumbos now look to put this loss behind them, and focus on this afternoon's road match against Williams, who currently hold the No. 8 ranking in the nation. Tufts is 2-3 in NESCAC play this season.
"I think we are very confident going into the match versus Williams," Luten said. "We played tough tennis against Amherst and we know we need to play the same way against Williams."
