Kenyon player Danilo Lobo Dias reports on his team’s matches in the Denison Round Robin. Denison sponsored the event, and Kenyon hosted some matches.
Gambier, OH — In a highly anticipated match-up, our team, #41 Kenyon College, opened the season in style against #26 Northwestern University, as each of the teams battled for its first win of the year.
Northwestern started the day by winning the first three matches at numbers 3, 6, and 9. However, the Wildcats had to work hard for them. In the 9 spot, our Justin Talwar ’10 had a comfortable 2-1 lead on Northwestern’s Diana Sands before dropping the next two games and the match 3-2. The number 6 match also went Northwestern’s way by the score of 3-2 after Andrew Liu came back from a 1-2 deficit and defeated me 14-12 in the 5th game.
Northwestern and Kenyon then exchanged 3-0 wins in the two and eight spots before our captain Michael Shea ‘10 defeated Kwang Ho Roh in four games.
With the score 4-2 in favor of the Wildcats, it was up to our 1, 4, and 7 players to step up. Our number 7 player, Rob Mueller ’12, and Northwestern’s ChanMoon Park engaged in another exciting five-game battle. Park went down 1-2 before taking the last two games in clinching the match for the Wildcats. Northwestern then took the number 1 and number 4 matches to end the day with a 7-2 win.
All in all, our team put up a great fight, and we certainly had the chance to pull off an early season upset. Our 6, 7, and 9 players all had 2-1 leads in their respective matches. In losing those three contests, we missed out on the opportunity of a possible 5-4 win. However, we had to keep our heads high and prepare for another showdown against the ninth-ranked University of Western Ontario.
UWO made quick work of our team. The Mustangs didn’t lose a single game in defeating us by the score of 9-0. The next morning, we took on the fourteenth-ranked United States Naval Academy and were once again defeated 9-0. Eric Milbourn ’13, playing in the 8 spot, was the only Kenyon player to win a game. Even though we never really put up a fight in these two matches, it was very exciting to witness such great quality of squash. This busy weekend showed us what it takes to compete at a high level in the CSA. Also, Kenyon’s new Athletic Center, boasting eight squash courts, proved to be a great venue for future round robin tournaments.
We will now turn our attention to Drexel and Haverford, who we will play on the 21st of November in Philadelphia.
