In a pressure-filled contest that would determine its postseason fate, the men's tennis team fell 8-1 at the hands of the nationally ranked No. 18 Amherst Lord Jeffs on the road Sunday.
The loss, which snapped a two-match winning streak, almost guarantees that the Jumbos will miss out on the NESCAC Tournament for the fourth straight year. The math is tough: Tufts now sits at ninth place in the conference and only the top six teams make the field.
To add salt to the wound, Tufts' regular season finale, a road match against Williams, is unlikely to change its fate. The Ephs are No. 3 in the nation with a 6-1 conference record, 14-2 overall.
The Lord Jeffs soundly defeated Tufts in all three doubles matches, surrendering only seven games across three eight-game pro sets. Amherst entered the singles matches needing just two wins to sew up the overall victory.
Despite several three-set efforts from the singles lineup, Tufts' only victory came from the No. 3 singles player, sophomore Andrew Rosen, who defeated Amherst's Jeff Wan 3-6, 6-4, 10-6 in a third-set super tie-breaker.
"I tried to keep the ball deep and play consistent and aggressive," Rosen said. "It was an intense match - my opponent was very good. There were a few critical points that I was able to pull out. I tried to come to the net and put away the points, continuing to be aggressive."
Senior captain Will Fleder played at No. 1 singles as usual, and despite losing 7-5, 6-2 said his match was much closer than the scores indicate, a pattern seen across all the Jumbos' matches.
"I had a chance in the first set, but my opponent capitalized on the big points and I didn't," Fleder said.
"For the most part we didn't capitalize as much as they did," he continued. "We made some unforced errors. The matches could've gone a lot differently from what the scores say."
Freshman Tony Carucci and sophomore Bryan Wilner both won the first set of their respective matches at the fourth and fifth singles spots, but neither could come up with a victory. Carucci battled Amherst freshman Sean Doeffler to a third set super tie-break, but Doeffler closed out the match by a final score of 4-6, 6-4, 11-9. Carucci had his chances though, failing to capitalize on two match point opportunities.
Wilner found himself in a tight match of his own against Amherst freshman Moritz Koenig, who eventually outlasted Wilner in a three sets a final tally of 2-6, 6-3, 6-1.
Despite the overwhelming loss, which all but eliminates the Jumbos from playoff contention, the team kept its spirits high, citing improvement from Amherst's 9-0 sweep of Tufts last season.
"The morale was pretty high even after we lost," Rosen said. "There were some very close matches - last year we didn't even win one. No one likes to lose, but I think we all played our hearts out. We played really well, but Amherst was just too good."
"We've gotten unlucky in situations where we've played well," Fleder added. "We're generally pleased with how we played, but unfortunately it didn't come together in a couple matches when we needed it to. We knew there was a chance there would be a learning curve this season and that's kind of what happened. We only had two players playing singles who had played singles before, and a lot of new doubles players."
The only opponent left on the Jumbos' schedule this year is national powerhouse and conference rival Williams, likely the best team Tufts will play this season.
"Williams is just as good if not better than Amherst," Rosen said. "We're going to go out and give our best shot and play for pride. "
Fleder said that while today's 4 p.m. road contest against the Ephs will all but certainly mark the end of the team's season, Tufts heads to the match with resolve to demonstrate to the conference that its mediocre season record and match scores are not representative of its true talent.
"We're excited to have our shot against them," Fleder said. "We want to end the season on a good note. Even if we don't win we think we can give them a run for their money. We want to show them we're better than the numbers we put up."
