MEDFORD, MA — The Ephs, still reeling from an 8-1 defeat to Amherst the day before, visited the Jumbos of Tufts University on Sunday afternoon, as they looked to rebuild their confidence going into a string of home matches in the coming week. However, a streaking Jumbo team, coming off a three-match winning streak, were not about to provide any relief for an Eph team that was really slow off the mark.
The Ephs' sluggish start was thoroughly punished by the Jumbos, as they took all three doubles matches off the Ephs, each by at least one break of serve. Each Eph team managed to find themselves down a break relatively early in the match, and the Jumbos, flying high on their confidence, never gave the Ephs a chance to find their way back into doubles, earning themselves a deserved 3-0 cushion going into singles.
That cushion came in handy and would prove to be enough, as the Ephs finally woke up by the time singles rolled around but couldn't manage to put together enough matches to surmount the three-point deficit.
Nevertheless, the Ephs put pressure on the Jumbos early on in singles by claiming the first two matches off the court.
Eph freshman Brian Grodecki drew first blood at four-singles with a straight-set victory over Jumbo sophomore Benjamin Battle 7-5 and 6-2, before junior Jose Raventos joined hima few minutes later, overcoming Jumbo junior Nik Telkedzhiev at the number one position with an impressive 7-5 first set scoreline, before a more comfortable 6-3 second set.
Having seen their lead cut to only one point, the remaining Jumbos on the court stepped up to stem the Ephs' surge.
Junior Rob Jacobson pulled the Jumbos to within one point of the finish line with a relatively straightforward win at six-singles over Eph freshman Jordan Sadowsky, 6-2, 6-4, and mere moments later, it was the freshman, Rohan Gupte, who bagged the clinching point for the Jumbos on court 2 over Eph sophomore Rohan Shastri.
Shastri found himself up an early break over Gupte, but Gupte wasn't about to concede the first set, fighting back to win four of the last five games to take it 6-4. Riding his wave of momentum, he broke Shastri early in the second and never looked back, winning the second set by a 6-3 margin.
The Ephs and Jumbos split the two remaining matches on the court, as Eph junior Alexander Schidlovsky dismissed Jumbo freshman Zain Ali at three-singles, before watching his compatriot, Eph freshman Sachin Raghavan, fall at the number five position in a close 6-4, 7-5 contest with Jumbo junior Rob Jacobson.
Eph head coach Dan Greenberg was only forward-thinking in his comments after the match: "That caps off a really disappointing weekend for us. But we have three huge matches coming up next week, so we need to find a way to earn some confidence quickly."
With three NESCAC home matches in the next seven days to wrap up the regular season, Greenberg's words really ring true, as the Ephs need three strong performances going into the NESCAC tournament. The first of the three matches is scheduled to be a Wednesday afternoon affair with Trinity, set to start at 4 PM EDT.
Tufts 6, Williams 3
1. Raventos, Jose (WILLIAMS) def. Telkedzhiev, Nik (TUFTS) 7-5, 6-3
2. Gupte, Rohan (TUFTS) def. Shastri, Rohan (WILLIAMS) 6-4, 6-3
3. Schidlovsky, Alexander (WILLIAMS) def. Ali, Zain (TUFTS) 6-4, 6-2
4. Grodecki, Brian (WILLIAMS) def. Battle, Benjamin (TUFTS) 7-5, 6-2
5. Jacobson, Rob (TUFTS) def. Raghavan, Sachin (WILLIAMS) 6-4, 7-5
6. Glickman, Jay (TUFTS) def. Sadowsky, Jordan (WILLIAMS) 6-2, 6-4
1. Telkedzhiev, Nik/Gupte, Rohan (TUFTS) def. Sadowsky, Jordan/Schidlovsky, Alexander (WILLIAMS) 8-5
2. Cary, Nick/Battle, Benjamin (TUFTS) def. Raventos, Jose/Shastri, Rohan (WILLIAMS) 8-4
3. Ali, Zain/Brockman, Griffin (TUFTS) def. Astrachan, Brian/Grodecki, Brian (WILLIAMS) 8-5
Match Notes:
Williams 8-8 (NESCAC 2-3), nationally ranked #14, regionally ranked #4
Tufts 7-6 (NESCAC 3-3), nationally ranked #30, regionally ranked #11
