The women's tennis team wrapped up its regular season play with a convincing 7-2 win over Trinity on Saturday to give the Jumbos the third seed heading into the NESCAC Championships. The victory came on the heels of a 7-2 loss to regional power Wellesley on Friday, which was just the team's second setback in its last nine matches. All in all, the nationally-ranked No. 13 Jumbos emerged from the weekend 10-5 overall and 6-2 in conference play.
Trinity, who also finished the season with a 10-5 record, was outmatched from the start. Tufts swept doubles play with the pair of sophomores Meghan McCooey and Erica Miller as well as freshmen Julia Browne and Edwina Stewart winning by 8-1 scores. This was a dramatic improvement from just a day earlier, when Tufts dropped all three of its doubles matches for the first time this year against Wellesley.
"Wellesley was the strongest doubles team we've seen yet this year across the board," senior co-captain Andrea Cenko said. "Against Trinity, we had played such great opposition the day before, it just seemed easier."
At singles, coach Kate Bayard made a switch at the top of the lineup, placing McCooey at first singles and Browne at second. The move appeared to pay off, as Browne made easy work of her opponent 6-1, 6-0. McCooey had a bit more difficulty, but defeated nationally-ranked No. 37 Brenna Driscoll 3-6, 6-1, 6-3. It was McCooey's 10th consecutive singles win.
"In the first set, she came out pretty strong. I had to fight to win every point," McCooey said. "In the second I focused on what was working instead of trying to hit shots I liked, and I played a lot smarter."
Saturday was the last match at Voute Courts for Cenko, the lone senior on the team. After being tied at five games apiece, she pulled out the first set of her match winning consecutive games. The second set went the distance with Cenko taking the tiebreak 7-5. It was the fifth time this spring that Cenko clinched a victory with a tiebreak win.
"It was the last home match and just one of those things where you never want to go out losing," Cenko said. "It felt really good. The weather was so nice; you couldn't ask for better day to play. As far as emotions, it was a little sad, but we have a lot more matches - definitely this weekend, and probably at Nationals."
Miller and junior Mari Homma won their singles matches handily, while the lone Trinity win came at sixth singles. The loss gave Trinity a 3-4 conference record and ended the Bantams' hopes of making it into the conference tournament.
The eighth-ranked Wellesley Blue hosted Tufts on Friday in a rematch of last year's NCAA Tournament second round match that Tufts won 5-3. Off the strength of their doubles play, the Blue bested the Jumbos 7-2.
Homma and Cenko played the closest match of the day at first doubles, but lost the pro-set 8-6. McCooey and Miller, who had not lost in their nine previous matches, went down 8-3.
"Doubles was really tough," McCooey said. "They were a really good team and stepped their game up. We're used to playing aggressive, but all of a sudden they were coming back with great shots and answering everything. We really had to adjust our game and it didn't work out."
"We played them really well," Cenko added. "It was tight, but they played most points better, so more power to them."
McCooey and Miller came back from their doubles loss to capture their respective singles matches. McCooey beat Wellesley
junior Jez Schwarzkopf, one of her doubles opponents, by a score of 6-1, 6-1.
"Singles and doubles are totally different games," McCooey said. "Just because one person plays well in doubles, you can't compare the two. I've played [Schwarzkopf] before, and we've had close matches. I knew what I had to do."
"Meghan completely smoked her opponent," Cenko added. "She had trouble with her in the past but totally pulled through for us."
Wellesley senior Jenna Mezin handed Browne her third defeat in four matches at first singles 6-2, 6-4. The Jumbos lost at fourth, fifth and sixth singles as well, to seal the 7-2 loss.
The NESCAC Championships begin on Friday at Middlebury, with the Jumbos set to face off against the Wesleyan Cardinals, who hold a 4-3 conference record.
