Coming off of two 8-1 wins last weekend at the Northeastern Round Robin, the men's squash team was hoping for a similar performance against Amherst to finish the semester on a positive note.
But the Jumbos got swept, 9-0, winning only two games in their worst showing of the season. Tufts has a rocky track record against the Lord Jeffs, having lost last year's match 5-4 and the match two years ago 8-1.
Squash ace Chris Delaney started his match off well, winning his first game, 9-6, but losing the next three 9-3, 9-2, 9-2.
"I was pretty disappointed with both my performance and the team's," Delaney said.
The only other Jumbo to record a win in an individual game was junior Chris Leetavorn. In his fourth match this season in the No. 3 position, Leetavorn faced off against Amherst senior Stu Landesberg in the most competitive match of the afternoon. After falling behind, 8-1, in the first game, Leetavorn battled back to win the next six points but lost the game, 9-7. He lost the next game, 10-8, but quickly won the third, 9-2. Despite showings of life, Leetavorn lost his final game 6-9.
"He won a game and was pretty close in another," Delaney said. "The match could have gone either way."
Freshman John Subranni, playing in the No. 2 spot, went down in three games to Lord Jeff senior Auloke Mathur, 9-5, 9-3, 9-3. Senior co-captain David Linz, coming off a three-match winning streak in which he accumulated an 81-15 points record without losing a game, did not win a game in his 9-1, 9-1, 9-0 loss to Andrew Slutsky. Fellow senior and co-captain Dan Karlin also lost in three straight (9-4, 9-3, 9-4) to senior Peter Hatfield. Sophomore Chris Martin, playing in the No. 9 spot, was defeated by sophomore Jerome Giovinazzo by a score of 9-3, 9-3, 9-0.
"I feel like I was playing well, but I made several errors," Martin said. "That was the general problem for the team as a whole. We were playing well, but we made fundamental errors, and nobody really played to their potential."
With the final match of the semester behind them, the team has a break until its Jan 24. match at NESCAC opponent Conn. College.
"We need to set ourselves goals for the break" Marin said. "Individual goals that we have to work on, like hitting higher lobs and having more patience."
The Jumbos go into the break with a 5-3 record but have historically done better in the second half of the season. After starting the season 3-6 last year, the team went 6-4 in the second half of the season to finish just under .500 at 9-10.
With the Conn. College match-up a little more than a month away and the NESCAC tournament a month later, the team has several important matches looming in the distance. These matches and tournaments will decide the standing of the team come nationals at the end of February.
