The Tufts Daily - Friday, October 18, 2019

Yodeling boy brings talent, youth to Brighton Music Hall performance see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 3

WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY

Jumbos finish on top of all other Div. III schools

Led by first-years, women’s tennis performs well in NEWITT Invitational see SPORTS / BACK PAGE

SEE SPORTS / PAGE 5

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VOLUME LXXVIII, ISSUE 30

Friday, October 18, 2019

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Mental Health Task Force releases report after 3 years

by Rebecca Barker Staff Writer

The Mental Health Task Force released its report to the community on Oct. 10, World Mental Health Day. According to the report, the Task Force was launched in the fall semester of 2016 by University President Anthony Monaco. “[The Task Force] was launched in December of 2016 … to examine the state of student mental health on campus; assess mental health services and related resources; review policies and practices; and develop actionable recommendations with respect to education, outreach, and mental health promotion; services and resources; and policies and practices,” the report says.

The Task Force was comprised of an Undergraduate Working Group, a Graduate and Professional Working Group and a Models of Care Task Group, which examined clinical resources on the Medford/ Somerville, Boston and SMFA campuses.

“There was particular attention paid to making sure that a multitude of voices were heard, and that all different constituencies were represented in terms of different schools,” Executive Director of Health and Wellness Michelle Bowdler said.

The report notes that the university saw nearly a 60% increase in new student sessions at Tufts Counseling and Mental Health Services (CMHS) between 2015 and 2018, with more than 25% of Medford/Somerville and Boston SMFA students using CMHS per year.

The university also began providing support for graduate students, citing the

2016 establishment of on-campus counseling at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medecine. The report says 21% of the Cummings School’s student population uses these services.

Bowdler said she believes Monaco was inspired to create the Task Force in response to larger national trends in mental health. “[Monaco] really wanted to do a comprehensive view of the issue on our campus. We’re lucky to have a president who does care so much about health issues, and I think he had had this in mind for a while,” she said.

The Task Force report noted that while there are university-wide services available, the university does not have a standardized approach for addressing mental health issues.

“Recognizing student mental health and well-being as a university-wide priority, the Task Force recommends further exploration of the potential to develop an Integrated Wellness Outreach Center to promote holistic student health, mindfulness, nutrition and well-being across the university,” the report says.

The report included a variety of other recommendations to maintain or improve the way Tufts addresses mental health, including exploring new evening hours for CMHS and telehealth, hiring more counselors on campus and considering a first-year course focused on mental well-being.

The Task Force also focused on the approximately 40% of students who study

NICHOLAS PFOSI / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Executive Director of Health and Wellness Services Michelle Bowdler speaks during the National Coming Out Day rally on the Lower Campus Center Patio on Oct. 8, 2014. abroad at Tufts, noting that unfamiliar cultural norms and new experiences may affect mental health.

“Tufts Global Education (formerly Tufts Program Abroad Office) includes mental health, self-care, and wellness as a central component to their pre-departure, in-country orientation, in-country support services, and return programing,” the report said.

The report also mentions a four-year partnership with JED Campus, which includes a grant awarded to the university from the Hudson’s Bay Company Foundation in November 2018 that aims to implement improvements in mental health based on resources across different campuses.

see TASK FORCE, page 2

Berman departs as medical school dean to continue fundraising for Tufts

by Stephanie Rifkin Contributing Writer

Harris Berman will step down as dean of the Tufts University School of Medicine (TUSM) at the end of this year, marking the end of his 10-year term.

Berman will continue to fundraise for both the medical school and the university on a part-time basis.

TUSM Vice Dean Peter Bates, who will serve as interim dean while the university finds a replacement, has worked extensively with Berman on improving the medical school and launching the Maine Track Program, one of Berman’s major accomplishments during his time at Tufts.

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“Dr. Berman has been a wonderful leader for TUSM and a personal mentor for me.

His intelligence, vision and humanity will be missed,” Bates said.

The Maine Track Program pipelines students from TUSM to practice in Maine to help address the state’s diminishing physician count.

“The Maine Track Program is probably the signature achievement of my time here.

We developed it from scratch, and it’s been an extremely successful program. It provides positions all over Maine, a state that was getting depleted of positions,” Berman said.

“Dr. Berman’s collaborative style encouraged and supported the innovation needed to bring this program to reality. Many rural

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Maine communities now have new practicing physicians because of this program and Dr. Berman’s leadership,” Bates said.

Beyond this program, Berman has had numerous accomplishments during his time at the medical school.

“Berman has championed curriculum improvements, ushered in a new anatomy lab and other learning spaces … and was actively involved in fundraising, which last year saw gifts of $37 million, the largest one-year total in the school’s history,” according to a TuftsNow article on Berman’s retirement.

Berman briefly commented on the university’s controversial ties to the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma.

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“We’re finally at the point where we’re about to get the report, at which point an expert committee that [University President Anthony] Monaco has put together will review this and come up with recommendations as to what we should do. I look forward to the day where we put this behind us and move on,” Berman said.

Prior to his time as dean, Berman worked as a Peace Corps physician and as CEO of the Tufts Health Plan. He then became chair of the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine and then vice dean of TUSM. His colleagues have spoken highly of him no matter where he worked.

NEWS............................................1 ARTS & LIVING.......................3

see TUSM, page 2

FUN & GAMES.........................4 SPORTS............................ BACK

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Friday, October 18, 2019

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Task Force recommends formation of new Steering Committee TASK FORCE

continued from page 1 Bowdler said the Task Force is working to reduce stigma and increase prevention and community building, instead of simply looking at treatment options.

“My background and degree are in public health, and so for me, as someone who believes really strongly in that model, I believe that you can’t tackle any large issue without looking at prevention, treatment and response,” Bowdler said. “We want our students to be engaged academically and socially, but at what point do we also need to be thinking about sleep and exercise and selfcare and making sure that somebody has a strong community of support around them.”

The Task Force may also create a Steering Committee to guide mental health improvements at Tufts, which will be chaired by Monaco.

“Many recommendations have already been implemented and the creation of the steering committee is a strong statement that this will be living and ongoing work,” Paul Summergrad, who serves as co-chairman of the Task Force with Monaco, said in an email to the Daily.

“Plans for the Steering Committee are still in early development and we will share additional details as they are available,” Monaco’s Chief of Staff Michael Baenen told the Daily in an email.

Baenen said that many of the Task Force’s policy-focused recommendations will not cost the university additional funding, but other recommendations addressing campus mental health resources would require university investments.

“Given the constraints on School budgets across the university, we recognize

that the Schools will need to assess the recommendations to refine and prioritize them and sequence implementation over time,” Baenen said. “The Task Force has also encouraged further exploration of opportunities for the university to seek private philanthropic support for initiatives to support student health and well-being.”

Bowdler noted how involvement in the community contributed to the report.

“I feel like there’s deep engagement in the Tufts community from students, staff and faculty, to address student mental health. In my position, that is very heartening to me to see not only a commitment to mental health but a commitment that’s lasted over many years, with Ears for Peers, Active Minds, the Senate [and] a number of the identity-based centers,” she said.

Berman hails new research institute TUSM

continued from page 1 In the TuftsNow article, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, who worked at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care while Berman was CEO of Tufts Health Plan, described Berman as a “friendly rival.”

“Harris was an innovator and a leader in every way … His leadership in every role he has ever had has been outstanding, and his commitment to improving health care for everyone has been long lasting and steadfast,” Baker told TuftsNow. Berman integrated the public health department into the curriculum of the rest of the medical school while he was involved in the Department of Public Health and Family Medicine, becoming the first dean of public health and professional degree programs.

“We’ve really expanded our programs in public health and included the medical school in this so that the medical students

learn about public health and the public health students learn about healthcare,” Berman said.

Berman told TuftsNow that collaboration between medical students and public health students is crucial.

“Medical doctors need to understand public health diseases and get involved in their communities, and public health people need to be able to deal with doctors,” he said.

With all of these accomplishments, Berman recognizes that there is always more work to be done to improve TUSM that the next dean will pick up where he left off.

“We are trying to focus our research in the areas where we can really do world class research as well as any of the larger better-funded institutions. We’re hoping to create a research institute that combines the world class departments and world class faculty across the medical,

dental, nutrition and veterinary schools in order to take full advantage of all the resources we have at Tufts,” Berman told the Daily.

Berman said he will continue to fundraise for Tufts and help coach the new deans as they start their new positions and development efforts.

“Fundraising is one of the parts of this job that I like the most because you go out and meet people who care about Tufts. It is a long-term process of getting to know somebody and their interests, and I’ve found it actually to be very satisfying. I never would have predicted 10 years ago that this would be the room that I would fill,” Berman said.

Berman said he is optimistic about Bates’ capacity to serve as interim dean.

“Bates is a remarkable leader who we really look to to do well and to enjoy work with in the 11 years he has been working here,” he said.

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Friday, October 18, 2019

CONCERT REVIEW

‘Walmart yodeling boy’ dazzles Boston with impressive musical talent

JACOB FRIED / THE TUFTS DAILY

Mason Ramsey performs in Boston’s Brighton Music Hall on Oct. 11.

by Jacob Fried Staff Writer

Mason Ramsey, the now 12-year-old “Walmart yodeling boy,” brought some twang with him to Boston’s Brighton Music Hall last Friday night. After a video of him singing Hank Williams’ “Lovesick Blues” in a southern Illinois Walmart went viral in spring 2018, Ramsey launched a rather impressive career.

Within just a few weeks of his video landing on the internet, Ramsey appeared on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” performed at the Grand Ole Opry and took the stage at the 2018 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. He has now released the albums “Famous” (2018) and “Twang” (2019), was featured on a remix of Lil Nas X’s record-breaking “Old Town Road” (2019) and lent his voice to “The Angry Birds Movie 2” (2019).

This remarkable list of accomplishments ultimately brought Ramsey to headlining his own 30-date national tour, cleverly taking the title “Hows Ur Girl and Hows Ur Family” from the lyrics of his Billboard-charting debut-single

“Famous” (2018). Ramsey sold out the 476-capacity venue for his tour’s only stop in New England, performing for an energetic and excited crowd of teenage girls, college students and men in their mid-twenties drinking lots of beer.

Fans were decked out in “yodeling boy” t-shirts, and it was sometimes difficult to see the stage over the sea of cowboy hats lining the crowd.

Before the main event, concertgoers listened to openers Jenna Paulette and Ernest, who delivered short but fun sets.

Paulette sang country songs about love and heartbreak. Ernest, a carefree and relatively unkempt artist who took the stage by putting some White Claw cans on a stool next to him, introduced himself to the crowd as Mason Ramsey and jokingly said it had been a tough year.

The two were a strange pair to open for a 12-year-old country star, and it was clear that the vast majority of the audience was simply there for Ramsey.

While performing one of his numbers, Ernest was even interrupted by a rude but honest chant of “Mason” by many of the audience members. In essence, the

first half of the night was characterized by fans of all ages in cowboy hats, many of them drunk, anxiously awaiting the appearance of the pre-teen meme and country sensation who had promised to yodel and sing love songs for everyone. It felt like we were all in on the same joke, but also that no one was kidding.

Once Mason Ramsey finally took the stage, it was obvious that his performance and his career were indeed no laughing matter. After seeing live videos of his performances on Instagram and YouTube, I was honestly a bit worried about what to expect from his live singing abilities. Yet, he hit practically every note and amazed the audience with his smooth voice and impressive vocal stamina. His yodeling was even more extraordinary, bending his voice in a way that left audience members overcome with awe. He has the kind of voice that just cannot be properly captured with amateaur recording devices, which seem to distort the sound of his highpitched singing.

Ramsey wore his classic cowboy attire: blue jeans, a blue collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up, cowboy boots, a black cowboy hat and his iconic belt buckle.

He started off his set with “The Way I See It” (2018) off “Famous,” going on to perform all but two songs of his 38-minute discography.

He performed his hits “How Could I Not” (2019), “Puddle of Love” (2019), “Twang” (2019) and “Famous,” bringing the entire crowd to a roar over his rendition of “Old Town Road.” He also played a variety of covers by Hank Williams and Johnny Cash; one of which was of course Williams’ “Lovesick Blues” (1922), the song that launched his career. He introduced his performances of other Hank Williams covers, such as “Hey Good Lookin’” (1951) and “Jambalaya (On The Bayou)” (1952), by explaining that he grew up listening to Williams with his grandfather and that Williams has always been his biggest inspiration.

At one point, Ramsey took off and hung up his cowboy hat, not even lasting

a minute before instinctively putting it back on again. It seemed as if he was trying to break out of his country, cowboy mold a little bit, but that he was not quite ready to take that leap. His only other noticeable fumbles of the night stemmed from memory troubles, forgetting the name of a co-writer of one of his songs and falling silent in the middle of “Jambalaya (On the Bayou)” after forgetting the lyrics. It was moments like these that reminded the audience that this artist singing about love and fame is still just a 12-year-old boy, lacking the seriousness and professionalism of more typical performers. Yet, this was exactly what made Ramsey so lovable and fun for the audience.

Ramsey owned the fact that he is just a kid while simultaneously exuding a confidence that was shocking compared to the shyness and awkwardness of the kid who first yodeled in Walmart a year ago. He had a commanding stage presence, laughed off his mistakes, made the audience swoon over his adorable dance moves and basketball shot motions, and had everyone begging for an encore. He also seemed to be playing up the meme of his fame while trying to transform into a young heartthrob, having audience members fight for his attention as well as signed t-shirts and guitar picks that he threw into the crowd.

The night amusingly ended with the venue’s DJ playing a song by Alvin and the Chipmunks, almost as if the audience needed a final reminder of Ramsey’s youth and high-pitched voice.

Despite his musical talent and outstanding vocal abilities, it seems that Ramsey has largely been relying on his reputation as a meme to keep fans interested.

He has been remarkably successful at turning his viral fame into a career. Yet, his impressive performance this weekend made it very clear to that once his voice develops further, I wouldn’t be surprised if he starts to be taken more seriously among mainstream listeners, no longer needing to rely on the unique humor of his career to attract attention.

The Biebers’ wedding is a fashion affair to remember

by Lila Felser

Contributing Writer

Hailey Baldwin and Justin Bieber’s wedding at the end of September was much more than just nuptials. Despite being married in a private ceremony at a New York City courthouse last fall, the Biebers waited over a year to hold an official wedding. The event took place at the Montage Palmetto Bluff in South Carolina on Sept. 30. Not only was the guest list compiled of A-listers like Usher, Jaden Smith and many members of the KardashianJenner family, but the event itself was a fashion spectacle. Everyone in attendance seemed to be pulling out their best looks. Most notable was, of course, Hailey Bieber’s wedding dress, or in fact, all three dresses she wore throughout the night.

For the actual ceremony, Hailey wore a custom gown designed by Off-White’s creative director, Virgil Abloh, who also happens to be a friend of the bride and groom. The off-the-shoulder neck-

line paired beautifully with the fitted bodice and long sleeves. This style, similar to the jumpsuit Virgil designed for Kendall Jenner at the 2018 Met Gala, was elegant, classy and complemented Hailey’s youthfulness. The floral embellishments, sheer paneling and bustier detail of the top added the perfect touches, while the neverending train and veil further dramatized her look. Finally, and perhaps most notably, the end of the veil was finished with the classic ending of marriage vows: “Till death do us part.” A true Virgil design is not complete without his iconic quotations.

Hailey’s second dress of the night, a custom Vera Wang design, was perfectly paired with a pair of custom white Nike Air Force 1’s. This mix of girliness and edginess parallels Hailey’s personality and everyday style. Wang’s dress was long and silky with drapey asymmetrical straps, while the classic kicks adorned Hailey’s feet. The last dress, a Ralph & Russo creation, was detailed with ruching silk, a deep side slit, and

a classy, high neckline. Hailey completed the look with a middle-parted, messy low bun, Jimmy Choo heels and simple Tiffany & Co. jewels. Each of Hailey’s three dresses reflected her personal style and her young age but also displayed a sense of womanhood and sophistication. Following the ceremony and via Instagram posts, the couple revealed their wedding bands. Both Justin and Hailey sported 18-karat gold Tiffany and Co. rings, both of Hailey’s lined with diamonds. Justin’s look would not be complete without the Audemars Piguet watch he gifted himself for the wedding or the pair of grills he wore all night. Hailey and Justin continue to maintain their reputation as one of the most stylish couples and individuals in the game.

While none of the guests could have outshined Hailey’s multiple outfit changes, a few looks especially stood out. To begin, Kylie Jenner showed up to the wedding in a stunning cut-out, gold foil gown by J’Aton Couture, an Australian label. Jenner received high

praise from her fans over the striking dress, while others viewed her fashion choice as too revealing for a wedding — but would anything else ever be expected from the 22-year-old billionaire? Nothing Kylie Jenner wears is ever complete without accessories, which in this case included a crystal Judith Leiber butterfly purse, strappy Stuart Weitzman sandals and a butterfly hairpin. Now, of course, there’s no Kylie Jenner without Kendall Jenner. For the wedding, Kendall Jenner opted for a long, green crushed velvet ensemble complete with a sparkling rhinestone Alexander Wang chain mesh purse and a crimped middle-parted hairstyle.

Aside from the Jenner sisters, singer Justine Skye sported a silky, burgundy one-shoulder dress, while supermodel Joan Smalls looked stunning in a simple strappy black dress and black pointytoe pumps.

Regardless of the fashion, the love that Hailey and Justin seem to share for one another is notable. The Biebers’ wedding was an affair to remember.

THE TUFTS DAILY | FUN&GAMES | Friday, October 18, 2019

F &G FUN & GAMES

tuftsdaily.com LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Chris: “[Bill Weld] looks like a raisin.”

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Sports

Friday, October 18, 2019 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

5

Women’s cross country takes 6th at NEICAAA Championship

MADELEINE OLIVER / TUFTS CROSS COUNTRY

Natalie Bettez (LA‘19) races ahead of the competition at the Purple Valley Classic at Mt. Greylock High School on Sept. 22, 2018.

by Liam Finnegan Sports Editor

The Tufts women’s cross country team competed at the New England Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association (NEICAAA) Championship Saturday at Franklin Park in Boston. The race featured teams from all NCAA divisions. Despite facing Div. II and Div. I competition, the Jumbos finished sixth out of the 22 teams competing at the race, and two Jumbos finished within the top 10.

Senior Sabrina Gornisiewicz led the pack of Jumbos in the 5k race, finishing sixth out of 155 competitors. She ran a time of 17:55.1, the best time out of the Div. III athletes.

Interestingly, this is Gornisiewicz’s first season as a varsity cross country athlete.

She initially came to Tufts as a member of the swim team, but she made the

switch to cross country for her senior year and is now dominating the competition.

Gornisiewicz was very pleased with her performance.

“To be sixth at [the NEICAAA] is rad, and I am beyond honored to be named top performer from Tufts,” Gornisiewicz said.

“I honestly have very little experience in competing in running, and so every practice and meet I find myself learning something new. [The NEICAAA] Championships was by far the most exhaustive competition I’ve had so far. This was surprising to me because our last meet was known to be a challenging course, the Purple Valley Classic, we raced a 6k and I ran with one shoe. However, this meet felt a lot more mentally challenging, despite it being a 5k and relatively flat with a few rolling hills.”

Gornisiewicz continued, stressing the high competition she faced from other Div. I schools across New England like

Yale University, Dartmouth College and University of Massachusetts Amherst.

“I’ve never experienced pack racing and found myself taking the first mile of the race out extremely fast in order to not get boxed out,” Gornisiewicz said. “I still have a lot to learn about strategic racing.

At this meet, given any point in this race, you could have been third or 20th, so it was definitely tough.”

Directly behind Gornisiewicz was sophomore Danielle Page, who finished seventh overall with a time of 17:55.2.

Both Gornisiewicz and Page’s hard-earned finishes were important results for Tufts because they helped contribute toward the team score.

Sophomore Anna Slager finished in 34th with a time of 18:43.7, the third-best time for Tufts. Behind Slager came senior co-captain Rhemi Toth, who finished in 53rd with a time of 19:08.0 and junior

Cameron Rusin who finished 84th with a time of 19:42.9. These five times were the times included in team scoring. Also in contention for Tufts was junior Johanna Ross, who finished in 98th with a time of 19:57.7 and senior co-captain Nicole Kerrigan who finished 106th with a time of 20:06.0.

In total, Tufts earned 176 team points to finish sixth at the race, continuing its season-long run of good form. University of New Hampshire won the NEICAAA Championship with a team score of 63.

Gornisiewicz thinks that the team’s positive energy is what is helping them achieve such good results this season.

“There is something really special when you know your teammates are choosing to be there and to push themselves, and that just facilitates a healthier and more energetic environment,” Gornisiewicz said.

“When you know your teammate is going the extra mile to give it their best, you push yourself further. I’m not sure what the culture was like in the past years, but to me personally, practices, meets and expectations feel light and fun. I’m not sure if I can speak on behalf of the team, but I’m having fun and getting a good workout in [at] the same time so I can’t complain.”

Gornisiewicz also took the time to acknowledge her coaches.

“We also have great coaches. Coach Kristen [Morwick] keeps energy and tempo high at practice and she even brings her dogs. However, I think they’re meant to prepare us for unexpected hurdles,” Gornisiewicz said. “We also have [assistant] coach Sean [MacDonald], who just graduated from Bowdoin last year. He’s able to offer us strategic insights on courses, competition and just running overall.”

Coach Morwick echoed Gornisiewicz’s sentiments. “[I’m] very pleased with the team and how things are going so far,” Morwick said.

“The vibe on the team has been really positive, and its been great to have a bunch of new faces join us.”

The Jumbos are back in action on Oct. 19 at the Conn. College Invitational held at Harkness Park in Waterford, Conn.

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6 Friday, October 18, 2019

Sports

Women’s tennis closes fall season with promising performance at NEWITT invitational

Staff Writer

The Tufts women’s tennis team concluded its fall season with two semifinal appearances at the New England Women’s Intercollegiate Tennis Tournament (NEWITT) held at Smith College.

Jumbos got the better of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Engineers in the first round of the A Draw, with first-year Tilly Rigby and sophomore Maggie Dorr defeating MIT duo of Seraphin Castelino and Yuka Perera 8–2. Rigby also went on to win her singles opener against Castelino in a fierce battle, edging out a 6–3, 4–6, 10–7 win. The pair fought valiantly before bowing down to Wesleyan in the semifinals.

Sophomore Nicole Frankel, who has been in sensational form this season, partnered with first-year Casey Cummings to emerge victorious in their first-round consolation match in the A bracket against Babson College. They eventually lost to MIT in the consolation semifinals.

In the B Draw, the team dominated MIT in the first round, winning all its respective sets. Tufts first-year Michelle Shub and first-year Kennedy May started things off with an impressive doubles win over MIT’s Sara Fernandez and Vanessa Kitova, closing out the match 8–5. Both followed suit by winning their respective singles matches in straight sets, with Shub winning 7–6 (4), 6–2 against Fernandez and May carving out a 6–4, 6–1 win over Kitova. In the semifinals, how-

Matt Goguen Keeping Up with the 617

Recipe to a Bruins Stanley Cup victory

T

he Boston Bruins electrified a passionate fanbase last year with a dominant run to the Stanley Cup Finals — and then proceeded to rip out Bostonians’ hearts. Behind goalie Jordan Binnington, the St. Louis Blues stomped on the Bruins defensive game plan and shocked the nation en route to their first Stanley Cup in franchise history.

The Bruins had home-ice advantage and were riding momentum following a 5–1 blowout win in Game 6. Nonetheless, they couldn’t muster a solid scoring chance for two periods in Game 7, while the Blues attacked the blue line and repeatedly exposed Tuukka Rask.

The Bruins’ 4–1 collapse at TD Garden underscored their lack of a clutch factor. David Pastrnak, Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand looked lifeless in arguably the biggest game of their professional careers. Rask played like a Div. III goaltender and essentially erased his memorable postseason run. The Bruins ultimately failed to capitalize on their offensive advantage and collapsed to a scrappy Blues team that was in dead last place in January.

The Bruins are off to a hot start in the 2019 season. They rolled through a West Coast road trip, then stomped on the Anaheim Ducks and the winless New Jersey Devils. It’s too early to make a full analysis, but the Bruins seem unaffected by last year’s collapse.

However, there remain 75 games and a lot of hockey to be played. Here are three hypothetical situations that could bring the B’s back to the Stanley Cup Finals:

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Mina Karamercam (LA’19) returns a shot during a doubles match in a home game against Williams at the Voute Tennis Courts on April 28, 2018.

by Pranav Jain

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ever, Middlebury got the better of Tufts, winning the match 2–1.

With the conclusion of the tournament, Tufts will take a hiatus from competition until the start of its spring season in March. Frankel spoke about the prospects of the spring regular season following the Jumbos’ fall performance.

“I feel our team has a lot of potential heading into the main season in the spring,” Frankel said. “As a team, everybody is match tough and super excited.

We have really good team chemistry, and everybody looks like they have a shot at winning matches.”

Reflecting on her own performance in this tournament and this season as a whole, Frankel observed an improvement in her game when compared to last year.

“I feel like I have been playing a lot better this year so far,” Frankel said. “I lost a lot of close matches.”

Frankel was particularly impressed by how the players didn’t let the difficult weather conditions alter their level of play.

“The weather was really bad and the conditions weren’t great, but everyone played through and made the best of it,” she said.

With a four-month haul before spring season begins, Frankel feels fitness and match practice are the areas where the team should focus on the most during the offseason.

“Big time would be the ability to close out matches and just be able to hang in there,” Frankel said. “We also need to work on getting more fit and get more match play.”

Sophomore Anna Lowy was particularly impressed with the maturity that the first-years have displayed this season and the strong dynamic the team shares.

“We’re a super young team with almost half the team filled with [first-years]. A lot of them have stepped up,” Lowy said.

“Since we are a young team it falls a lot on us to organize our offseason. There is no captain, so everyone plays a really strong role in the team.”

Reflecting on the fall season, coach Kate Bayard was extremely happy with the eagerness and hardworking attitude that the players had shown.

“A big positive is that we got to play many of the top teams and players in the country,” Bayard said in an electronic message to the Daily. “We won some close matches and lost a fair amount of them too. It’s one thing to know that our level is close. The next step is what the team does with that as we head into the off-season and prepare for spring.”

Bayard also feels that competition and fitness are areas the team needs to work on. “[The] team needs to get out there and play matches and continue to get tougher in competition in both singles and doubles,” Bayard said. “We know we are up against the toughest in the country all spring and the other teams are working hard in the offseason.”

After a four-month layoff, the Jumbos will return to action on March 7 at Conn. College. They hope to make the most out of the offseason and come back stronger, fitter and better.

Dominance by the first line trio Marchand, Bergeron and Pastrnak dominated the NHL last season. The phenoms combined for 106 goals and 260 points. They were brilliant on the power play, and their neutral zone play was superb. Yet they seemed to disappear in the postseason. Their dominance must continue this year to give the Bruins a legitimate shot at the Cup. The Bruins aren’t deep enough to get consistent offense from their third and fourth lines.

Minimal injuries on the back end Boston’s defense was wracked by injuries last season with Charlie McAvoy, Kevan Miller and Matt Grzelcyk plagued by the injury bug.

Miller was an impact player before succumbing before the playoffs, and the Bruins suffered.

To be fair, Connor Clifton exceeded expectations in this postseason, notching five points.

However, his flaws were exposed in Game 5 of the Finals, and he was a healthy scratch for Game 7. Keep the defense off Injured Reserve, and the Bruins should be set for a deep run.

Tuukka Rask’s confidence Please stop using Rask as an excuse for the Bruins’ playoff woes. He isn’t a bad goaltender.

I agree he occasionally chokes, but he’s mostly stellar between the pipes. Give the man some confidence. He had an unbelievable postseason — minus one game that should never again be mentioned in Boston. If his mojo returns this year, he’ll turn into Binnington 2.0.

As far-fetched as it might sound, the Bruins have an even better chance at winning the Stanley Cup this year. The players are driven to avenge their collapse, and the team is firing on all cylinders. The Tampa Bay Lightning are in a rut, and the Toronto Maple Leafs can never win against Boston. Say your prayers for yet another Cup run!

Matt Goguen is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Matt can be reached at matthew.goguen@tufts.edu.