Friday saw the first of three full days of matches of the 2020 College Squash Association National Collegiate Men’s Team Championships hosted by Harvard University, MIT, and Tufts University. Day 1 got off to a fast start in the first round of matches and maintained that momentum all the way through the evening session.
The higher seeds mostly emerged victorious on the first day of action, but there were several very close matches and a few upsets. Even with excitement at a high level during the day today, interest will increase even further tomorrow with finals berths on the line and the weekend upon us. Live streams of six courts at Harvard and live scoring in the draws can be found on the Tournament Homepage.
Potter Division
As expected, the match of the day in the Potter Division was the 4-versus-5 rematch between Princeton and Rochester. The result hinged on two five-game marathons on adjacent courts at positions number 6 and 7. Princeton emerged as the winner in both contentious matches with Maaz Khatri outlasting Rochester’s Sergio Martin for the match-clinching point. The Tigers will now meet top-seeded Harvard in the semifinals after the Crimson cruised past Drexel, 9-0.
The bottom half of the draw played out according to seed, with second-seeded Trinity and third-seeded Penn moving on to face each other tomorrow. Virginia’s impressive freshman tandem of Aly Hussein and Omar El Torkey captured the only two victories for the Cavaliers against Trinity. Yale’s 8-1 defeat to Penn was much closer than the scoreline appears, with seven of the nine matches going past three games.
Hoehn Division
For the second year in a row, the Hoehn Division played host to some of the most exciting matches of Day 1. The top half of the draw was particularly action-packed, with both matches ending in 5-4 scores. As predicted, Cornell and Franklin & Marshall’s 4-versus-5 match-up was close the whole way, coming down to the wire with the number 9 match on court. Cornell senior co-captain Jared Scherl turned things around after a first-game loss to clinch the victory for the Big Red.
Cornell will take solace knowing that their scheduled opponent for tomorrow, Dartmouth, had a tough road on the courts today too. The eighth seed, MIT, came ready to play in their home city and gave the top seed in the division everything it could handle. Dartmouth ultimately clinched the match at 5-3, but MIT’s wins in four five-game battles showed off their talent and determination. 2- and 3-seeds Columbia and Western Ontario will meet in the other semifinal after relatively comfortable victories of their own. It will be the first meeting between the two teams this season.
Summers Division
The evening session at Harvard featured a very NESCAC-heavy quartet of matches which ultimately went the way of the higher seeded teams. Second seed Naval Academy emerged with the closest victory of the night, riding the strength of the top of the lineup with wins in positions one through five. Navy will meet 3-seed Middlebury in the next round in a rematch of their regular season tilt, which Navy won. Middlebury outlasted Amherst for the third time this season, 6-3.
In the top half of the draw, 1-seed Williams and 4-seed Bates each captured 8-1 victories to move on to the semifinals. Single wins in the bottom third of the lineup could not propel Tufts and Colby closer to victory, so it is Williams and Bates who will vie for shot at the final tomorrow night.
Conroy Division
The Conroy Division matches were the first ones on court for the tournament this morning, and they got things off to the right start, including one of the few upsets of Day 1. In a rematch of their 5-4 showdown during the season, 3-seed Wesleyan and 6-seed Chatham battled tooth-and-nail to the end in this match as well. In the well-contested decider at number 5, Chatham’s stalwart Vinicius Muniz earned a four-game win and the final point for the Chatham upset. Second seed Hamilton will now be on alert tomorrow facing Chatham after they dispatched Haverford 9-0 in their quarterfinal.
In the top half of the draw, top seed Dickinson raced away from an upstart Cal-Berkeley squad, ultimately capturing a comfortable 8-1 win. Tomorrow, Dickinson will face Connecticut College, who overcame three losses at the top of their ladder against 5-seed St. Lawrence. Dickinson sneaked by Conn College, 5-4, back in late November.
Chaffee Division
The top three seeds in the Chaffee Division – Hobart College, Fordham University, and New York University – cruised to comfortable victories in the first round of action at MIT this afternoon. The match of the division today came in the 4-versus-5 match-up between Denison and Northeastern. The teams were evenly matched, with each squad earning four victories, but it was Denison’s default at the number 9 position that handed fifth-seeded Northeastern the mini-upset. Fordham and NYU will bring their Big Apple rivalry to Beantown in one semifinal tomorrow, while Northeastern advances to meet top-seeded Hobart.
Serues Division
The evening session at MIT included four matches among Serues Division teams who traveled in from all around the country. Once again, three of the top four seeds prevailed in the opening round matches, including top-seed Bucknell University, 2-seed Georgetown University, and fourth-seeded University of Richmond. Sixth-seeded Boston University, another squad enjoying playing close to home, upended the 3-seed Stanford in fairly comfortable fashion, 7-2. Stanford tried to keep in close, winning one match in each of the first two waves, but BU shut the door in the third wave, winning all three contests.
Hawthorn Division
Every team in the 10-team Hawthorn Division was in action at Tufts University’s new squash center on Friday evening. Play-in matches between the four lowest seeded teams started the day, with 7-seed Indiana University and 9-seed Lafayette College moving on to the main draw. Seeds held true in the middle of the draw, where third seed Duke and fourth seed Lehigh clinched semifinal berths. In the nightcap matches, the first round of play appeared to help the lower seeds as Indiana and Lafayette pushed for their second victories of the day. Lafayette was able to earn the upset over top-seeded Notre Dame, but 2-seed Vassar held off a hard-charging Indiana squad, 5-4. In tomorrow semifinals, Lehigh and Lafayette bring their local rivalry to town while Vassar takes on Duke in the lower half of the main draw.
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