The women's tennis team now has a legitimate beef with Bowdoin.
After a tough 6-3 loss to the Polar Bears a little more than a week earlier in the first round of the NESCAC Tournament, the Jumbos had the chance at redemption, this time in the first round of the NCAA Northeast Regional Tournament.
The two teams were tied at No. 27 in the national rankings when they met at Amherst, where the Jumbos fell one match short of enacting vengeance, losing in a 5-4 heartbreaker to the Polar Bears. The loss, which ended the team's season with a 9-9 overall record, was the Jumbos' second early exit from postseason tournaments and its third loss to Bowdoin on the season.
"It's always tough to lose such a close match," coach Kate Bayard said. "However, it's losing matches like these that will make us capable of winning close matches in the future. The team put it out there and played with guts, but someone had to win."
At No. 1 doubles, senior captain Becky Bram and junior Jen Luten picked up a solid 8-2 victory for the Jumbos over Bowdoin junior Kelsey Hughes and freshman Sarah D'Elia.
However, Tufts' remaining doubles teams failed to follow suit. Competing at No. 2, Polar Bear junior Christine D'Elia and sophomore Kristen Raymond overwhelmed Tufts juniors Kylyn Deary and Stephanie Ruley 8-1. (Deary is also a staff writer for the Daily.) The No. 3 doubles team of sophomore Andrea Cenko and freshman Mari Homma
suffered a similar fate at the hands of Bowdoin senior Kristina Sisk and freshman Rachel Waldman, losing 8-2.
"It was tough losing those matches knowing how hard we have been working on our doubles and how well we have all been playing doubles in matches and practices," Bram said.
"Becky [Bram] and Jen [Luten] played brilliant doubles once again," Bayard remarked. "I think our No. 2 and No. 3 teams played a bit tentative, and Bowdoin was able to take advantage of this."
The 2-1 lead for Bowdoin proved crucial to the Polar Bears as both teams split 3-3 in singles competition. At No. 1, Luten handily took out Sarah D'Elia 6-3, 6-1. At No.2, Bram picked up the 6-4, 6-3 win over Raymond. Hughes decimated Ruley 6-1, 6-1 to grab another match for Bowdoin at No. 3.
The Jumbos' best opportunity to pick up the winning fifth match came at No. 4 singles, where Deary squared off against Christine D'Elia in the contest's only three-set match. Deary won the pair's matchup 6-2, 6-0 eight days earlier, but was unable to repeat. D'Elia quickly took the first set, but Deary rebounded with a tiebreaker win in the second. D'Elia proved too much, however, winning the match 6-0, 6-7 (5), 6-2.
"I was abroad with her in Rome, and [Jen Luten and I] had played with her, so we knew each other's games," Deary said. "It was easy to figure out her game the first time around, but the second time, she just played the best tennis I'd ever seen her play. She played smart, she played tough, and there wasn't really anything I could do. I choked."
Competition at No. 5 singles saw Tufts junior Silvia Schmid fall to Waldman 7-5, 6-0. Cenko routed Sisk 6-1, 6-1 at No. 6.
"I think we had various spots throughout the lineup [to win another match], but Bowdoin played a bit tougher under pressure," Bayard said.
Unlike the previous two matches against Bowdoin, this contest saw only one match go beyond two sets, and the players who lost did so by a significant margin.
"Clearly a strong start was important in this match," Bayard said. "Every person who won the first set in singles won the match."
With team play for Tufts over this season, individual competitions in singles and doubles commence this weekend at the University of California, Santa Cruz. After a 6-5 season at the No. 1 spot, Luten earned a spot as an alternate, one of four, in the singles draw of 32 players. Luten has played in the tournament the past two years, and won her first two matches last season to advance to the quarterfinal round.
No doubles team from Tufts was selected. Bram and Luten, playing at No. 1 for most of the season, compiled a 5-1 record, but did not play the minimum six matches during the regular season, since their final match occurred during NCAA Regionals.
"Jen definitely has a good shot at making it into the tournament," Bram said. "She also played in the tournament last year in doubles and she and Kylyn played great [then]. It was disappointing that Jen and I didn't make it into the tournament [for doubles] this year, because we did not play the minimum matches."
