Although many Div. III tennis teams across the country have already completed several matches to kick off the spring season, Tufts mens tennis will begin over spring break at Claremont Colleges in Claremont, Calif., where they will take on Denison, Sewanee, Pomona, Occidental and Trinity. It will be a quick jump into team play, especially compared to the more singles-oriented fall season the team had last semester.
In the first half of its 2013-14 season, Tufts only played one dual match, an 8-1 victory over Babson. Despite only competing in one dual match, the team participated in the Brown Invitational, the Middlebury Invitational, the ITA Regional Championship and the Wallach Invitational.
According to sophomore Rob Jacobson, Tufts found success during the stretch in September and October.
[Sophomore]Nik [Telkedzhiev] got to the semi-finals of ITAs, and [sophomore] Jay [Glickman] got to the finals of the Middlebury Invitational, and I had some pretty consistent results at all of those tournaments, he said.
Telkedzhiev agreed that they had a good fall season, but believes the team is a lot stronger now because of its hard work during the offseason, and how much harder they have been working since the beginning of the spring season in mid-February.
In the next few months, we have huge opportunities to show how much better we have gotten, he said.
Glickman, the teams No. 1 singles player during the fall, also attested to the teams effort during the winter months. Although they were proud of their accomplishments during the fall season, players understood they had a lot of work to do to prepare for the year, he added.
Everybody stayed extremely motivated and focused in order to put [himself] in the best position to win matches this year, he said.
The Jumbos welcomed five freshmen this year, adding to the teams depth.
Everyone on the team is capable of playing which is really positive for us, Jacobson said.
The team begins its season with a dual match against Denison next Monday, followed by Sewanee on Tuesday, Pomona-Pitzer and Occidental on Wednesday and Trinity on Friday. It is a grueling set of matches, but a test that should help the Jumbos in the long run.
The new set of opponents will also pose a challenge to the team. The California schools not only have a longer spring season, but also play outdoor tennis year-round. This advantage will challenge the Jumbos, considering that they have been practicing indoors since November due to cold weather.
Something that will be really interesting will be playing Trinity in California
[since] in years past weve played them in much colder elements in the East, Jacobson said. Were all excited to see what will happen, but if we keep working the way we have been, we think things are going to go our way.
The NESCAC conference is the toughest for mens tennis; last year, four NESCAC teams were in the top-15 national rankings by the end of the season. Tufts looks to include themselves in this mix and hopes to get the conference win against Trinity early on in the season.
We are looking forward to taking one match at a time, Telkedzhiev said. Hopefully our hard work will pay off by making NESCACs and also getting nationally ranked. We have had that mindset since the beginning of the year.
The key to our success this year will be treating every match with equal importance and staying disciplined with our match preparation, Glickman added.
