On the heels of Tuesday's NESCAC victory over Conn. College, the women's tennis team traveled to unranked Bates hoping to reinforce its chances of qualifying for the NCAA Regional Tournament.
Fortunately for the Jumbos, they brought brooms, sweeping Bates 9-0 on Saturday and improving their overall record to 8-7 as they head into their final regular-season match against Wellesley on Wednesday and the NESCAC Championships this weekend. The loss dropped the Bobcats to 5-7 on the season.
"Bates is not a bad team, and coming there and massacring them 9-0 is huge for us," senior co-captain Becky Bram said. "It's going to give us a lot of confidence going into these next matches, which are the most important of the season. They're definitely a good team, and they're not usually one that loses 9-0."
At No. 1 doubles, Bram and junior Jennifer Luten defeated Bobcat junior Laura Harris and sophomore Cecelia Grissa 8-5. From No. 2, juniors Kylyn Deary and Stephanie Ruley trounced Bobcat senior Liz Currie and freshman Caryn Benisch, 8-1. Tufts sophomore Andrea Cenko and freshman Mari Homma secured the sweep in doubles, downing Bobcat sophomores Liz Fleming and Mallika Raghavan, 8-4.
"My goal going into the match was to sweep the doubles for the first time this spring," coach Kate Bayard said. "We have been focusing a lot on finishing every point at net and playing smart, high-percentage doubles. The team has been willing to use these skills in matches, and it is clearly paying off."
Not to be outdone, the singles lineup held fast to ensure the perfect win for the Jumbos. Playing from the No. 1 slot, Luten trounced Grissa 6-0, 6-1. Currie met a similar fate at the hands of Bram, falling 6-1, 6-0 to the Tufts captain at No. 2; at No. 3, Ruley handily secured the straight-set victory over Benisch 6-3, 6-3.
From No. 4, Deary breezed past Harris 6-1, 6-1. Tufts junior Silvia Schmid and freshman Jessica Knez saw court time as well Saturday, rounding out No. 5 and 6 singles, respectively. Neither disappointed: Schmid took down Raghavan 6-3, 7-5 while Knez defeated Bates senior Karina Bautista by an identical 6-3, 7-5 margin.
"The momentum in doubles carried over to the singles," Bayard said. "I was impressed by the mental focus each player kept throughout the match."
Overall, the Jumbos did not drop a set to the Bobcats and won a total of 106 games, while Bates only managed to secure 36. With this win, Tufts finishes conference play with a .500 record. The Jumbos finished the fall portion of the season 2-2 against NESCAC opponents, but quickly fell to 2-4 after consecutive losses to No. 2 Amherst and No. 8 Williams on Apr. 11 and 13.
"I feel good, but not satisfied about our performance against NESCAC rivals [this season]," Bayard said. "We had a couple of nice wins back-to-back most recently. It's not a big deal that we lost to Williams and Amherst, because those matches showed us that we're absolutely capable of beating any team. We lost to Williams 5-4, a match that could have gone either way. We lost to Amherst 8-1, but each individual match was close, and we saw that they were beatable."
And instead of a fall roster weakened by the absences of Deary, Luten and Ruley, the Jumbos are at full-strength this spring and hitting their stride at the right time.
"We didn't have our full team in the fall," Bram added. "I think the NESCAC teams we lost to in the fall [Bowdoin and Middlebury], if we met them again, we would definitely be able to beat them."
The Jumbos conclude the regular season with a road trip Wednesday to No. 12 Wellesley, which currently sits atop an impressive 20-1 regular season record, their only loss coming to Amherst 7-2 on Apr. 15.
"They are definitely a good team, but I know the way we're playing now we should be able to beat them," Bram said. "It'll be tough. Everyone's going to have to be playing their best and be on their game, but I know we can do it."
"Right now we are playing the best tennis of the season so far," Bayard added. "We know Wellesley will be a battle. We will have to play patient tennis, yet take advantage of opportunities at the same time. The team is feeling confident after the last three matches."
