The men’s squash team rolled to a pair of home victories over the weekend, defeating M.I.T. 8-1 Saturday night and Penn State 9-0 Sunday morning. Wesleyan improved its overall record to 6-13 with the wins and has won four of its last five matches since a 2-12 start.
Against M.I.T., the Cardinals cruised to the 8-1 victory behind an array of strong performances up and down the ladder. The Cardinals’ top four of Robert Broadfoot ’10, Benjie Messinger-Barnes ’09, Dale Kobrin ’11 and Nate Fowles ’10 all swept their matches, and Tyler Snell ’09 rolled to a 3-1 victory at number five. Wesleyan’s depth was also on display as the Cardinals pulled out 3-2 wins at the sixth (Lonnie Gibbs ’10), seventh (Charlie Drake ’11) and eighth (Sam Plapinger ’12) spots. The win was Wesleyan’s second of the season against the Engineers—the teams met at Dartmouth in Wesleyan’s season opener, with the Cardinals rolling to an 8-1 win—and tenth in a row overall against M.I.T., which has not won more than three matches against Wesleyan since a 6-3 loss in the 2005-06 season.
Wesleyan kept up its winning ways on Sunday morning to maintain its undefeated record against Penn State, which has lost all three of its meetings against the Cardinals, the last two by 9-0 scores. Messinger-Barnes, Kobrin, Fowles, Snell, Drake and Plapinger all swept their matches, while Broadfoot and Gibbs earned 3-1 wins. At the number-nine spot, Carlos Richardson ’12 avenged a narrow 3-2 loss against M.I.T. with a 3-2 win against his Penn State adversary to give Wesleyan the sweep. Five of the Cardinals’ six wins in 2008-09 have been by scores of 8-1 or 9-0.
Wesleyan returns to action this weekend in the National Team Tournament at Princeton. Wesleyan finished 22nd overall (out of 49 teams) in the tournament last season. The Cardinals’ first-round opponent in the tournament has not yet been announced.
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