Tufts men's tennis completes comeback with win at Bates

Tufts tennis had been trailing for the entirety of its matchup against Bates going into the final two singles matches on Friday. At No. 5 singles, sophomore Danny Coran of the Jumbos was locked in battle against junior co-captain Pat Ordway of the Bobcats, and at No. 2, Tufts sophomore Zain Ali took on Bates junior Chris Ellis. Down 3-4, the visiting Jumbos needed to pick up the remaining two contests in order to come away with the victory. With come-from-behind wins by first Coran and then Ali, Tufts did just that.

The No. 13 Jumbos escaped from Lewiston, Maine with a 5-4 win over the No. 24 Bobcats, further securing a potential spot in this year's NESCAC tournament. After Bates jumped out to a 2-1 lead in doubles play, Tufts was put in a tough position to overcome an early deficit. Led by resilient play in the singles sets, Tufts regained control and took back the match.

"We came back together, we were down 2-1," Jay Glickman, a senior, said. "We had been playing great singles this entire year. That's kind of been a big strength of our team, and I think that going into the singles we just felt like we were mentally and physically prepared to play that day. We came out kind of firing on all cylinders, started singles pretty strong, but I think we lost a couple of first sets. What ultimately determined the match was our ability to stay out there and fight ... Our team is just a lot of fighters and they don't give up."

Bates kicked off play with wins at No. 1 and 2 doubles. Ellis and sophomore Ben Rosen beat Tufts senior tri-captains Nick Cary and Rob Jacobson at the top doubles spot, 8-4. In the second position, Ordway and sophomore Fergus Scott beat Glickman and sophomore Griffin Brockman by the same score.

Tufts was able to secure one doubles win in the third spot, as Ali and Coran teamed up for the first time in their careers to take down sophomore Josh Leiner and first-year Josh Quijano of Bates by a score of 8-6. Over the course of the season, Bates has played strong doubles competition due, in part, to relatively static lineups and steady performance, whereas Tufts has switched positions more frequently. When the teams met Friday, Bates' consistency triumphed.

"In doubles this year, we've kind of mixed up our doubles lineup a lot, and it takes some time to build chemistry," Glickman said. "And I think the Bates teams have been playing together for the entire year. In my opinion, they ended up getting up 2-1 because they've been playing solid doubles this year. I wouldn't say they're necessarily better teams, but they play well on their home courts, and that's what ended up happening."

Singles play started with split results. Bates came out with the first match win at the No. 1 spot, as Glickman was swept 6-2, 6-0 by Rosen. Junior Kevin Kelly of Tufts countered with a win at the No. 6 spot, taking down junior Brent Feldman in straight sets 6-3, 6-4. The final four matches of the day, even more closely contested, finished in three sets.

Scott outlasted Jacobson, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, in the No. 3 position after the Tufts senior took the first set. Cary, however, shifted the match momentum back in Tufts' favor with a 2-6, 6-0, 6-2 over Quijano at No. 4.

This set the stage for the final two matches for Coran and Ali. Coran, playing at No. 5, eked out a win against Ordway in a tiebreaker after losing the first set, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (6). Ali and his No. 2 singles opponent Ellis played out to 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 in Tufts' favor. The gritty play from Tufts, clawing back for a victory in such a close match, has been characteristic of the team this year.

"One thing that's huge from this year, and that's different from last year, is that last year we actually lost three matches 5-4 and this year we won all four matches that we've gone 5-4," Ali said. "Being in that circumstance, being down, we knew we could come back because we've done it a couple of times this season."

With all of the other matches completed, everyone's attention turned to those final two deciding courts, as Tufts fought to take over the lead. This dynamic -- with both teams watching in anticipation, everything riding on the last matches -- provided a thrilling ending to the day.

"I mean it's so fun. That's my favorite part of Div. III tennis in the main season is those clinching matches," Glickman said. "It's a position that you want to see your team in. It makes the whole atmosphere more fun, everybody's really loud and into it, and supporting our teammates is huge in a situation like that. That really makes a big difference in the momentum of the matches, really carrying your teammates through. We were very supportive of both Zain and Danny in their matches."

"Honestly, what I thought was the best thing about that day, was the energy between the courts," Ali added. "Danny and I never played together in doubles, that was the first time we played together, and we were the last two courts to play on singles, too. So just from winning that doubles match, Danny and I just had so much energy. Me and him were screaming between courts. We had a fence between us, but we were going like -- I kept screaming to Danny, 'You and me D, we're coming back, we're bringing this match back to Tufts.' Like we just kept yelling at each other, screaming at each other."

Ali continued on about the high-intensity atmosphere, citing that his Bates opponent even tried to instigate a fight during the match, as Ali was continuously questioning line calls that Ellis was making regarding whether shots were landing in or out. Emotions running high, each player wanted to do every little thing possible to pick up points or knock his respective opponent out of rhythm. In the end, it was Tufts' momentum that led both Ordway and Ellis of Bates to double-fault, sealing the win for the Jumbos.

"Everyone knew how big of a match it was," Ali said. "Bates needed it because they needed to get into the NESCAC tournament. We needed it to save our season and stay in the NESCAC tournament ... It was probably one of the most fun dual college matches that I've had in my two years."

Tufts has just two regular season matches remaining, one at MIT on Friday and one at home on Sunday. The team will enjoy an extended break this week with no competition scheduled until Friday. Though the Jumbos have been playing without some usual starters — such as sophomore Rohan Gupte and senior Nik Telkedzhiev — out of the lineup due to injury or personal issues off the court, according to Ali, they've fought hard to adjust and pick up the wins they needed to extend play into May. With the win against Bates, Tufts almost guarantees itself a NESCAC seed in the tournament. Though the team has put itself in a good position to qualify for postseason play, the road ahead will be no easier and the team must continue preparing.

"At this point, I think we're in a good position to make NESCACs," Glickman said. "The Bates match was a crucial match for us to kind of solidify our position ... I think as of right now we're the No. 5 seed going in. The NESCAC is really tough. I talked about this before, but there are six teams that are going to make NESCACS that are all ranked top 15 in the country."

The Bowdoin match, specifically, will be a great test heading into the postseason.

"If we can beat [Bowdoin] on Sunday, that would be amazing because last year we went 5-4 with them and they're pretty much the same team ... and we're pretty much the same team too," Ali said. "They're competing a lot better this year, but we don't really care. We know we can beat them. We've taken out big teams like Amherst this year, and people didn't expect that. People aren't expecting us to beat Bowdoin either. I'm hoping that we have a lot of good energy, people firing on every court."

Over the next couple of days, the Jumbos will have plenty of time for individual players to focus in on what specific issues and improvements they would like to address before the weekend's matches. Rest will play in heavily as the team prepares for one last push over the end of the regular season and into conference championship play.

"I think the key for the matches this weekend, especially the Bowdoin match on Sunday, is just going in with the right mindset because at this point in the season I feel like a lot of people are mentally fatigued and maybe a little bit physically fatigued as well, and this end part of the season with the last two matches and also NESCACs will be a great test for us to kind of prove our endurance," Glickman said. "And in my opinion, our team definitely has that endurance. We've worked hard this entire season and offseason to make sure that at this point in the season we're playing our best tennis."