Tufts finishes 2-1 over weekend against three top-30 teams

No. 26 Tufts faced off against Dickinson, Haverford and Connecticut College -- all ranked in the top 30 -- this weekend, winning two games and losing one in close match-ups, raising their season record to 6-3. Sophomore Alec Goodrich was the only member of the team to go undefeated on the weekend in the seven and eight spots.

The Jumbos played against the No. 25 Conn. College Camels in just their second NESCAC game on Sunday, defeating the higher-ranked team by a score of 8-1.

Every conference win means a little extra to the team.

“We hadn’t won a conference match in four years before this season,” first-year Matt Memmo said.

The team also beat Hamilton earlier in the year; both wins were Tufts' first against either program.

“The wins are good for our conference rank and also our ranking in the national tournament because they were both highly seeded teams,” first-year Imran Trehan said.

Senior co-captain Aditya Advani continued his dominant streak, winning easily by a score of 11-5, 11-7, 11-5. Goodrich completed his undefeated weekend with a straight sets victory.

The team’s only loss came from sophomore second seed Braden Chiulli, who lost a tightly contested five-setter to Conn. College sophomore John Dunham. The players won the same amount of total points in the match, but Dunham eeked out the fifth set 11-7. 

The team dominated top to bottom, with all but three games being won in straight sets. Both ends of the ladder comfortably handled the opposition, and the Jumbos proved that they could not only challenge higher ranked teams, but also compete as a powerful team in the NESCAC and national tournaments.

The day before, the team took a 6-3 victory against No. 30 Haverford. Six of the top seven players won their games, including a dominant three-set sweep from Advani. Four first-years represented the middle of the ladder in spots three through six, and all picked up wins against the Black Squirrels. Three, four and five seeds Alan Litman, Cameron Ewan and Aiden Porges all won in straight sets, and Trehan handily won a four-setter in the six spot. Goodrich rounded out the Jumbos’ six victors.

Early in the day, the Jumbos took the court against the No. 29 Dickinson Red Devils, falling by a score of 6-3 in a match where all six of the Tufts losses were taken to four sets. In a positive outlook of this match, the Tufts victories were all recorded by the bottom of the ladder, illustrating the team's depth. First-years Brett Raskopf, the seventh seed, and Memmo, the ninth seed, joined Goodrich in the winners column.

“In squash, the nine seed counts just as much as the one seed; having a lot of depth at the back of the lineup and having guys you can count on takes a lot of pressure off the top guys,” Memmo said.

The team now has a long break until Jan. 24, when it once again takes on Conn. College. The team’s ranking will likely go up after this past weekend, and the 2-0 start in the conference is promising, as Tufts looks to continue its hot start into the tournament season in February.