With heavy rain earlier in the day, the men's tennis team was able to take advantage of its familiarity with the faster indoor courts at the Gantcher Center to sweep away non-conference foe Babson 9-0 yesterday, advancing its record to 2-0 for the fall.
"[Playing indoors] is an advantage for us," junior Jon Trott said. "We're used to it. They, on the other hand, haven't had much experience playing like this. Their coach [wanted] us to move back outside. [But] we ... like it in here."
As it went, they stayed inside, and whether it was due to some sort of Gantcher Effect or perhaps their superior talent, the Jumbos took care of the Beavers with relative ease, dropping Babson to 2-2 on the season. Tufts' closest doubles match was at the No. 1 spot where junior Daniel Landers and sophomore Paul Kohnstamm found themselves up only one break at 6-5.
"We should have done better," Landers said. "One of their players had a really funky spin on his serve so we couldn't break him, and we just couldn't get in our usual groove. Anytime Paul was playing good, I wasn't, and anytime I was playing good, he wasn't. We just couldn't click today."
A questionable line call by one of Babson's players gave the Beavers an opportunity to bounce back, forcing Landers and Kohnstamm to regroup.
"Not only did he call it out late, but it was the kid who was furthest from the ball who made the call," Landers said.
Still, the duo got its revenge, winning the next three points along with the match, 8-5.
At No. 1 singles, junior Andrew Rosen decisively bested his left-handed counterpart from Babson, junior Alex Kamergorodsky, by scoring a 6-1, 6-1 victory.
"A lefty with a good serve can be dangerous," coach Doug Eng said. "It can take a player a few games to get used to spin like that."
"He kept trying to hit a drop shot on me," Rosen added. "He did it once, but after that, I was able to anticipate it coming and was able to get a two- or three-step advantage."
Playing at the fourth singles slot, freshman Sam Laber had one of the more exciting matches of the day. Despite dropping the first set 6-4, he bounced back to win the second set and found himself in a third-set tiebreaker. Laber prevailed 10-5, chalking up his victory to effective use of a solid serve and forehand.
The remainder of Tufts' singles players cruised to straight-set victories without any trouble. Sophomore Tony Carucci won 6-0, 6-2 at No. 2, Trott downed his Babson opponent 6-2, 6-1 from the third spot and junior captain Bryan Wilner played at No. 5 and won 6-1, 6-1. At No. 6, freshman Garrett Schuman did not disappoint in the first collegiate match of his career, bageling his opponent 6-0, 6-0.
Yesterday's lineup featured a slightly different feel than the first match of the season; Tufts bumped freshman Kai Victoria, who played No. 3 doubles during the squad's 9-0 win over the Salve Regina Seahawks on Sept. 24, one spot higher on the doubles ladder as sophomore Jake Fountain sat out the match. The change in roster for the contest went off without a hitch, as the team of Laber and Victoria took an 8-4 victory at second doubles and the No. 3 doubles tandem of Trott and sophomore Tom Wilmanski won 8-1.
The next and final challenge of the fall season will come at the Wallach Invitational Oct. 11-12, hosted by Bates. Similar to last weekend's ITA Regional Championships, the Wallach Invitational will provide another opportunity to learn about the NESCAC competition the Jumbos will be taking on in the spring.
"The Wallach Invitational is good not only because of the tough competition, but is also a good place to scout out our competition without putting our record on the line," Eng said.
