Northampton, MA — It was a busy weekend of college squash with many pivotal matches.
On Friday, Cornell travelled to Trinity in an eagerly anticipated matchup between the men’s teams. Cornell was on a mission. In the first round of the three-court system, Cornell opened a 2-1 lead thanks to Bryan Keating at #9 and Will Hartigan at #6. In the second round, #2 Alex Domenick was up 2-1 on Trinity’s Antonio Diaz, but Diaz battled back and captured the match in five games. Trinity willed themselves to a 7-2 victory. The Trinity women defeated Cornell 8-1. Cornell’s Jamie Laird won the Big Red’s lone match in five games. Trinity shutout the Stanford women on Saturday. Both Trinity squads beat Franklin & Marshall on Sunday.
Harvard returned from the holiday break with a pair of Ivy League matches on the weekend. These matches marked the collegiate debuts of Ali Farag and Amanda Sobhy, who were just cleared to play by the Ivy League office. Harvard defeated both Penn squads on Saturday. The women’s match between Princeton and Harvard was extremely close. Tied at 4-4, Harvard’s Haley Mendez won in five games to clinch the win for the Crimson. If today’s women’s match is any indication, the Howe Cup will be extremely exciting. The top-five teams all have a legitimate shot at the national title.
Like the women, the men’s Princeton/Harvard match was tight. Princeton escaped Cambridge with a 5-4 win.
Princeton also defeated Dartmouth’s men and women on Saturday.
A number of teams were at Yale for a round robin this weekend. In men’s action, Yale hosted Cornell. The Bulldogs pulled out a 5-4 victory thanks in large part to the bottom half of their line-up. Yale also beat Columbia. Wesleyan reversed a first semester 4-5 loss to Conn by defeating the Camels 7-2. They also defeated Hobart 8-1. St. Lawrence defeated Bowdoin 8-1 and shutout Colby. Bowdoin beat Hamilton. Middlebury beat Colby and Bowdoin.
In women’s action at Yale, Wesleyan defeated Conn. Yale defeated Stanford, Cornell, and Columbia on the weekend. The Bulldogs have not lost a single individual match yet this season. Bates, which is on a mission to move up the rankings, lost to Stanford, 1-8, but defeated Amherst. In a match up of NESCAC opponents, Hamilton defeated Bowdoin.
Earlier in the week, Navy defeated Columbia. On the weekend, the Midshipmen shutout Hamilton.
On Friday, Rochester defeated Western Ontario, 8-1.
Dartmouth faced Bates on Sunday. The Big Green defeated both Bates’ men and women. Dartmouth’s women lost to Penn, but their men defeated the Quakers 5-4.
On Sunday, Middlebury, the 12th-ranked women’s team, confirmed their ranking by defeating 13th-ranked Mount Holyoke.
Coaches and Team Contacts, please remember to enter your team’s results in the US Squash Scoring System on the day of each match. Each player must be named in the results (“Not on Roster” entries will not be tolerated) or penalties may be applied.
Coaches, Team Contacts, and SIDs may nominate players to be the Harrow Sports College Squash Player of the Week by contacting Michael T. Bello. Nominations are due each Monday by 6 PM ET.
For complete results from all of this weekend’s action, see Women’s Results and Men’s Results.
