Drexel player Justin Burkholder reports on his team’s matches at the Drexel Round Robin, which was held on November 14th.
Philadelphia, PA — Drexel University’s men’s squash club held its first round robin on November 14th, 2009 at Philadelphia’s Lenfest Center, hosting teams from Cornell, Haverford, and Kenyon. The tournament matches were played on a 7-court system at the venue. The Drexel men’s squash team works closely with SquashSmarts, a Philadelphia youth enrichment program, and shares its state-of-the-art squash coaching facilities for hosting collegiate squash tournaments in Philadelphia.
A last minute shake-up of Drexel’s lineup delayed the start of the match and forced members of the Drexel team to play two positions above their original rankings. Drexel opened to disappointment as Kenyon swept the first match 9-0. Not wanting to go down without a fight, the Dragons pulled themselves together only to fall once more to Cornell 2-7. Drexel’s four and six, Kevin Rose and Stefan Gagliano, fought out their matches into the fifth sets, and Kevin Rose and number one player Akshay Singh managed to take two games away from Cornell. While Drexel may have been defeated, the loss will only drive the team to train harder and finish the second half of the season as strong as they can.
The 1st Annual Drexel Round Robin witnessed competitive and quality squash, and indeed was a success with over 50 players, coaches, match officials and fans in attendance. With the construction of two new glass-back international squash courts underway at Drexel University, the Drexel squash team looks to host more collegiate squash tournaments in the future as it works to become a prominent force in the College Squash Association.
