The first full weekend of college squash action in 2019 provided plenty of intrigue and foreshadowed an exciting second half of the regular season still to come. With a new set of rankings scheduled to be released later this week, the standings may look quite different thanks to several results from the weekend.
All four teams from Williams and Middlebury recorded undefeated weekends, including sweeps of NESCAC foes Bates, Bowdoin, and Colby. Both Middlebury squads added a victory over Amherst, clinching 4-0 weekends, while the Williams women overtook Mount Holyoke for their own four-win mark. The teams impressed with their victories, most notably with the No. 20 Middlebury and No. 21 Williams men both handling No. 18 Bates, and the No. 15 Middlebury women winning comfortably against No. 16 Amherst.
Several Ivy League matches featured closely-ranked opponents playing to very tight results, including one upset and several 5-4 scores. The No. 6 Yale women beat No. 4 Penn on Saturday, 7-2, and then carried that momentum into their match with No. 3 Princeton on Sunday. The Bulldogs pushed the Tigers to the brink, but Princeton’s No. 6 Emme Leonard prevailed in four games to clinch the 5-4 victory.
The Dartmouth men’s and women’s teams each had a back-and-forth battle end in a 5-4 result. The No. 9 Big Green women overcame No. 12 Cornell 5-4 on Sunday, a day after the No. 6 men lost a heartbreaker to No. 3 Columbia. In Providence on Sunday, the No. 10 Brown women gave No. 4 Penn everything they could handle in 4-5 loss.
The other main upsets of the weekend, according to the rankings, occurred on Friday evening. No. 12 Western Ontario traveled south to No. 10 St. Lawrence’s home courts and walked away with a 5-4 win, continuing the Saints tough start to the season. At Williams late on Friday, No. 27 Mount Holyoke continued a run of success with a victory over No. 25 Bowdoin.
To close out the extended weekend, Dickinson and Tufts met at Brown for a neutral site match, with Tufts’s teams emerging with two upset victories. Tufts’s No. 19 women bested No. 17 Dickinson, 7-2, while the No. 24 men took down Dickinson’s No. 19 squad 5-4 in a dramatic victory.
With many schools yet to start classes, teams are using the free time to fit in matches every day this week. Headlining match-ups include:
- No. 1 Trinity men traveling to No. 5 Rochester tonight
- Amherst hosting Dickinson with all four teams coming off tough losses
- George Washington hosting high-flying Naval Academy
- Colby taking on local rival Bates after the Bobcats’ tough weekend roadtrip
