Northeastern player Warren “Buddy” Scott reports on his team’s match with Amherst, which was held on November 14th.
Boston, MA — On November 18th, Amherst College traveled to the SquashBusters facilty to take on the Northeastern Huskies for the first match of the year for both squads. Our team, the Huskies, came to play with great intensity and enthusiasm and recorded the most victories versus Amherst in our brief six-year history. This match could have easily gone 5-4 in either team’s favor.
Coming into the match, the preseason rankings were 16 for Amherst and 24 for Northeastern. Starting off the first round of matches were our number 3 Tim Bandel versus Amherst’s Todd Lavine, number 6 Bose Majumder versus Lee Banta, and number 9 Andrew Wilson versus Saahil Sud. Bandel played some of the best squash in his career and took down Lavine in four close games. He lost the first 11-7, but stormed back to win three unanswered games: 11-9, 11-9, 11-9. Lavine was ranked 188th in the CSA compared to Bandel’s ranking of 216th. Bose Majumder put up a good fight and won the first game, 12-10. His lanky, ranging opponent Lee Banta picked up his intensity level and went on to win three consecutive games: 11-6, 11-3, 11-6. Freshman Andrew Wilson, playing his first collegiate match, gave his all but came up short to Saahil Sud in three games: 11-4, 11-0, 11-1.
The second round of matches brought our number 2, co-captain Pedro Souza, against Amherst’s Charles Loesch-Quinton, John Ghublikan versus Matt Arnold and Jose Garcia-Planas versus. Nick Kramer. Souza dropped the first two games, 11-6, 11-9 but came back with great effort and vigor to post a five-game victory. The scores read 11-8, 11-5 and 11-6. Asked how he came out with the win, Souza commented: “It was all mental for me. Once I knew I could win, I pushed myself to the victory.” John “Ghubs” Ghublikian split the first two games with his opponent: 8-11, 11-4. Arnold pushed Ghubs to the brink and came out with the victory: 11-5, 11-9. Sophomore Spaniard Jose Garcia-Planas played well but lost in three games: 11-3, 11-5, 12-10.
The final matches were Northeaster number 1 Christian Rosstad versus Amherst’s Steve Severson, myself versus Andrew Kriete, and number 7 Keith Sproat versus Zach Porges. Junior Rosstad dominated at the number 1 position, only dropping one overtime game: 11-8, 11-4, 11-13, 11-4. I came out of the gate firing, winning the first two games 11-9 and 11-6. I was up 4-0 in the third game, but I wasn’t able to finish off the feisty Kriete, who went on to win three straight games: 11-7, 11-2, 11-7. Freshman Keith Sproat lost his debut in three: 11-3, 11-6, 11-4.
Overall, this was an encouraging and uplifting result for the Northeastern men’s team. Winning three matches (easily could have been four) is a great starting point and our team will look to build on these results.
