For the fourth time in its first five matches, the Tufts women's squash team fell victim to the strength of some of the toughest teams in the nation without winning even a single of the nine matches played.
On Saturday, the ruthless victors came from upstate New York, as Cornell took down the Jumbos in all nine games without dropping a set in Cambridge, Mass. However, the annihilation was less a function of Tufts' inadequacy and more a result of Cornell's incomparable depth and experience.
"Everyone played really hard," junior tri-captain Valerie Koo said. "They were clearly a lot better, being [ranked] No. 6 in the country while we were No. 18. We went in with no expectations and tried to play really hard and have fun … from what I saw, everyone was being very competitive."
Unfortunately for the Jumbos, being competitive failed to translate into victorious matches. Both Koo, who played in the No. 1 spot on the ladder, and sophomore Alix Michael, who competed in the No. 2 slot, managed to earn seven points off their opponents in the final game of each of their matches, but that was the closest anyone came to winning a set. Tufts' top two players consequently each fell 3-0 to their Cornell opponent.
The biggest obstacle Tufts confronted was one that could not have been avoided: inexperience. Six of the Jumbos' top seven players on the ladder are either sophomores or freshmen. Cornell's top nine, on the other hand, is almost exclusively made up of upperclassmen. This inexperience reared its ugly head Saturday for Tufts.
"It was tough because they played their full lineup against us, and sometimes teams like Cornell will drop a few of their top players when playing weaker schools," Koo said.
"I think they're a very strong team throughout the whole ladder, and for us, we have a lot of new girls who weren't as strong or experienced," said Sairah Mahmud, the only senior to play against Cornell. "I think definitely later in the season we could have had a closer match, but all of these Cornell girls have been playing even throughout high school, which is not how it is for us."
For the Jumbos, the loss came on the heels of their first win of the season on Thursday against Wellesley. In a 9-0 victory at Dana Hall, many of Tufts' players experienced their first taste of success in a Jumbos uniform. According to Koo, the elation that came from this statement victory actually helped the Jumbos deal with the knowledge that their outcome against Cornell was almost inevitably bleak.
"In general, people played really well coming off our big win against Wellesley," Koo said. "[The win] helped our morale, and I think people were more competitive and more into the match because everyone had won on Thursday.
"As a team we had high spirits because of the win, but we knew Cornell would be tough," she continued. "We tried to support each other and give constructive criticism. In terms of what we need to work on, we just need to be a little more confident because you make stupid mistakes when you have negative thoughts."
The Wellesley victory certainly was a big one for Tufts, which opened the season with three straight 9-0 losses at the hands of Bates, Williams and Middlebury. Though the fall portion of the season is now over, the Jumbos are intent on keeping their fitness high and getting prepared to return to competition in January. Once the winter season kicks off on Jan. 23-24 at the Mount Holyoke/Smith Round Robin, Tufts' chances at victory should be much higher.
"We all know what we want to work on now because when you play better players, it shows your weakness a lot more," Koo said. "[Over break we will be] working out as much as we can. We are coming back to Tufts early to train as a team, so that will be good for us.
"We need to work on playing the right shots against schools that are better than us, but I think after break it will be better because we're playing teams more on our level," she continued.
There a few positive things, however, that the Jumbos will take away from this fall semester in spite of the tough losses.
"I think as a team we're doing really well staying in the game, returning serve with girls who are better than us and staying in there throughout the entire point," Mahmud said. "Our team's pretty close and really supportive of each other. We learn from each other by watching each other's matches."
