Northampton, MA — There were many exciting college squash matches this week that will have ranking implications.
On Wednesday night, the Yale men defeated Trinity, 5-4. The Bulldogs’ victory ended Trinity’s 252-match winning streak. The Bulldogs travelled to northern New York on Friday and defeated Western Ontario 8-1. On Saturday, host Rochester looked to make history of their own by defeating the Bulldogs. Despite an early lead by the Yellowjackets, Yale clinched the match at 5-2, which included three 5-game victories, before Rochester won the final two matches.
Trinity’s men and women hosted Harvard on Saturday. For the men, the world was watching to see how the Bantams would respond to their loss to Yale. Trinity roared to a 5-0 lead and went on to win 7-2. Harvard’s women won 8-1.
The annual round robin hosted by Amherst, Mount Holyoke, and Smith — the Pioneer Valley Invitational — started play on Friday night. Over the weekend, 23 teams from 13 schools competed, which included a snowy Saturday morning commute between the three host locations.
Amherst’s men made the most of the weekend. The 23rd-ranked team went 4-0 with victories over four teams in close proximity in the rankings: Hamilton (24th) , Hobart (26th), Conn (21st), and Colby (20th). Not to be outdone, the Amherst women went 4-1 with victories against Wellesley, Tufts, Conn, and Colby.
Mount Holyoke went 2-1 on the weekend. The Lyons were defeated by Yale, but rebounded with a 6-3 victory over Hamilton and a 9-0 victory over Haverford. The anticipated match-up between Mount Holyoke and Columbia was cancelled. Columbia could not make the trip from New York due to inclement weather.
Smith College debuted their renovated courts this weekend. The Pioneers’ courts are newly resurfaced and feature two “Pioneer blue” walled courts. Smith’s inaugural match in the updated facility was an 8-1 victory over Haverford, which included a five-game victory for senior captain Clair Oblamski at the #1 position. The team also lost to Colby and Franklin & Marshall.
Hamilton’s squads had a successful trip to Western Massachusetts. The Continental women, who just returned many players from abroad, opened the event with an 8-1 victory over Colby and a 6-3 win over higher ranked Amherst. They also defeated Wesleyan. The Hamilton men lost to Colby and Amherst. In the Continentals’ match with Wesleyan, the score was tied at 4-4 with only the #9 match to play. In the end, Hamilton emerged with the 5-4 victory.
CollegeSquashAssociation.com will have photos and videos from the Pioneer Valley Invitational in the coming days.
In Williamstown, the Dartmouth men escaped with a 5-4 victory over Williams. For the women, Dartmouth beat Williams 7-2.
St. Lawrence lost to Western Ontario 2-7, but rebounded to defeat Bates 8-1. The Bates women shutout St. Lawrence.
On Friday, the Brown women hosted Williams. They won the match 6-3. Williams’ men defeated Brown 8-1.
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.
