With two months of squash out of the way, February arrives just in time to sort standout squash teams from the rest through tournament play. The men’s and women’s squads got their first tastes of championship play at this past weekend’s NESCAC Tournament. Unlike in past years, when Wesleyan had co-hosted the event, the Cardinals donned their away colors and embarked on a two-day trip to Hamilton that tested the Cardinals’ ability to take on the taxing NESCAC competition.

The women’s team produced a 7-2 first-round victory over Colby, but fell to Trinity, the eventual champion, in the quarterfinals. In their final match, the Cards dropped a 7-2 decision to Bowdoin to finish the tournament in eighth place. The men’s side notched its best-ever tournament finish, capturing fifth place despite bowing out in the first round to Middlebury in a 5-4 heartbreaker.

Women’s squash began its tournament climb facing a familiar foe in Colby, a team it had vanquished 6-3 just 12 days prior. In a display of consistent growth, the Cardinals bested the Mules yet again, this time tacking on another individual victory to further distinguish themselves from their competitors.

Coming off of a severe 1-3 defeat from the last outing against Colby, Captain Mary Foster ’14 reversed the result in a major way with a silencing 3-0 victory at the top of the ladder. Captain Lauren Nelson ’15, Abigail Smith ’17, and Hannah Plon ’14 also recorded resounding 3-0 match scores to propel the Cardinals to the quarterfinals of tournament play.

In the second match of the tourney, the Cardinals were tasked with upsetting the defending champions from Trinity. The Bantams’ might proved to be too much for the Cardinals to handle as their intrastate rivals initiated Saturday’s action with a conclusive 9-0 victory over the Birds. Only Smith, playing at the eighth spot on the ladder, was able to pick up even a single set against Trinity.

With little time to regroup, the Cardinal women were handed their second loss of the day 8-1 at the hands of host Hamilton. The Cardinals fared marginally better against the Continentals; third-seeded Annie Maxwell ’15 registered the Cards’ only match victory on Saturday in a 3-0 sweep. In their final match, the Cardinals again produced incrementally improved results, but still failed to register a victory over their opponents from Bowdoin. The Cardinals fell 7-2 to the Polar Bears to conclude their eighth-place showing on the weekend.

Facing Middlebury for the first time all season in the opening round of the tournament, the Cardinal men needed to size up their opponents on the fly to jump to the next round, where a rematch with Williams hopefully awaited. However, the Cardinals ended up on the wrong side of a contest decided by a tiebreaking match at the top spot.

The loss to Middlebury meant an end to the Cardinals’ aspirations to jump into the more competitive B Division for national championship play, but also brought upon a moment of reflection and a chance for redemption for the Cardinals.

“I think we were all a little disappointed at the first round loss to Midd, but fifth at NESCACs is still a respectable finish in our books,” wrote John Steele ’14 in an email to the Argus. “The one regret from this weekend is that it means that we will not make it into the B divisions at nationals, which was one of our reach goals for the season. Fortunately, with nationals in two weeks, we will probably get to see all those teams again. I think our team is hungry for a Midd rematch. There were a couple of close five-game matches that fell their way, including Zander [Nassikas ’14] and mine, and I’m pretty confident we have their number after this weekend.”

Steele and the rest of the Cardinals were able to finish the weekend on a positive note, dispatching Colby 7-2 and edging out Bowdoin 5-4 to finish in fifth place. The resilient weekend performance was anchored by consistent play from Guy Davidson ’16 and Chris Hart ’17, as both competitors bested their counterparts in each of their three weekend contests.

Despite performing below their initial expectations, when put in context, this Cardinals performance represents the result of long-term sustained growth for the program.

“As seniors, we have really seen this team grow and gain a lot of respect in the last four years,” Steele wrote. “We used to have to fight to get into the top 20, and now we are right there with the mid-teens. It may not seem like a big jump, but other teams have definitely noticed. Our freshman year we lost to Amherst 8-1 at the Little Three, and this year we beat them 7-2. It’s cool to see that teams that used to steamroll us now are starting to admit ‘wow, they really have a good team.’”

With their confidence building despite their difficult losses, both the men’s and women’s squash teams will look to maintain their positive momentum ahead of even more tournament play this weekend at the Division III Individual Championships hosted by Bowdoin.