As the University of Virginia’s Men’s Squash program kicks off their 2018-2019 season, they seemingly have a lot to look forward to. The team finished with a ranking of 14 at the end of the last season, their first as a varsity program, which is a remarkable achievement for such a new program. From the starting squad of that team, only one player has moved on – graduated senior and program talisman Mason Blake. In Year 2, Head Coach Mark Allen brings in four talented freshmen to supplement his nine returning starters, creating valuable depth and intrateam competition that should raise everyone’s level. The season has already gotten off to a quick start for the Cavaliers with a visit to the Naval Academy this week, and they received a forceful reminder that growth as a program is a process. UVA received a bump in the CSA Preseason Rankings, up to 13th, and Navy dropped to Number 16, but it was the Midshipmen who emerged victorious with a tight 5-4 win. Allen’s men will get another shot at Navy later in the season, but they will also need positive results against teams like Cornell and Drexel in order to reach their head coach’s goal of improvement by one place in the final team rankings.
2017-2018 SEASON RECAP
Season Record: 15-8
Final Ranking: 14
Team Championships Result: 6th in the Hoehn Cup (B Division)
2018-2019 SEASON PREVIEW
Head Coach: Mark Allen
Returning Players from Team Championships:
- William Braff; 3. Jarett Odrich; 4. Grayson Bubrosky; 5. Charles Woodworth; 6. Toby Hansford; 7. Matthew Katz; 8. Killian Bubrosky; 9. Andrew Braff; 10. Harrison Kapp
Graduated/Non-Returning Players from Team Championships:
- Mason Blake
Additions to 2018-2019 Roster:
- William Holey
- Patrick McElroy
- Peter Miller
- Glenn Yates
Team Goal: “To better finish last year’s ranking – by at least one place, but preferably more!”
Key Matches: Naval Academy, Drexel, Cornell, Dickinson, George Washington
To read season previews for other CSA teams, please visit the 2018-2019 College Squash Season Previews page.
After reaching their highest ranking in this decade in 2015 – Number 19 – the Colby College Women’s Squash team has settled back into the lower half of the C Division rankings over the past few years. Enter Chris Abplanalp, formerly the head coach of the men’s and women’s squash teams at St. Lawrence with quite a few successful accomplishments to his name. Abplanalp will be tasked with bringing some energy back to Waterville, especially in anticipation of Colby’s new athletics facility coming online in a couple years. Abplanalp and the Mules will have a tall task in Year One of his tenure, however. Four-time First Team All-NESCAC selection Devin Mullaney graduated in May, and two other starters from last year’s lineup are not expected to return this season. That leaves a lot of ground to make up for the seven returning starters and the two first-year players who arrived on campus this fall. The 11 players that make up this year’s roster for Colby will have to make the most of their opportunities and create a winning team culture as quickly as they can in preparation for the season. Conn College presents challenging early match-up for the Mules, and then back-to-back weekends against Hamilton and Franklin & Marshall will give a sense of how far the team has come leading up to championship season in February.
