The men’s squash team reached the semifinals in the C Division of the National Championships held at Yale University over the weekend. To reach the semis, the Cardinals beat George Washington University 6-3 on Friday. Saturday’s semifinal match saw the Cardinals take on the higher-seeded Stanford University Cardinal in a battle, of sorts, for mascot supremacy (although Stanford’s represents the color, not the bird or church figure). Stanford proved superior as Wes lost 7-2, setting up an important Sunday morning match against bitter rival Colby College to decide the number nineteen team ranking in the College Squash Association’s end of season poll.
The team was particularly frustrated with Saturday’s lost to Stanford.
“We just didn’t come to play… the guys just aren’t playing at their highest level,” said co-captain Benson Gillespie ’04.
Unfortunately the statement became a fitting precursor for the impending match against the Colby Mules.
To the dismay of a Wesleyan squad that handed Colby a 7-2 beating earlier in the month, the Cardinals fell 5-4 to the Mules on Sunday. The season as a whole was successful when considering the Cardinals’ number twenty overall placing is two positions higher than the preseason poll predicted.
“I would characterize the season as a success on many levels,” Gillespie said. “We brought ten guys with a variety of different interests together to form a cohesive team. Everyone became a better squash player and the underclassmen gained a great deal of experience in college match play. There is no doubt in my mind that some of the friendships formed this year will last a lifetime.”
For senior James Utterback ’04, a transfer from Colby after his sophomore year, the loss to his former team in his final college contest was especially hard to stomach.
“We had a promising season that fell just short of its potential this weeke,” Utterback said. “I think we were all let down a little by our performances.”
With a 13-9 individual record, including a win on Friday over GW and Sunday against his former team, Utterback joined freshman Dylan Rau ’07 (10-9) as the only players to end the season with winning marks.
An examination of the box score against Colby reveals that the Cardinals were the deeper team. Although losing at numbers one through four, Wesleyan won at the five, six, seven and nine spots. For this reason the men can be positive about next season’s potential despite the graduation of Utterback, and the team’s co-captains and numbers one and two on the ladder respectively, Gillespie and Kevin McCarthy ’04.
“Losing Benson and Kevin will make it tough for us to be competitive at the top of the lineup, however Rau and Andy Alyward ’07 are solid players with the potential to succeed near the top of the ladder. If all goes well, we shouldn’t fall too far,” said Philip Wallach ’05. “Kevin and Benson have been at the core of this team for all of their four years, and since James transferred from Colby he’s made big contributions… I’ll definitely miss such stand-up characters.”
With difficulties in recruitment, it is unclear how many new faces will wear the Wesleyan squash jersey next year. The only certainty is that the team’s nucleus will be of a younger make-up. Leaders will need to emerge to aid head coach David Cukierman if the Cardinals hope to repeat the 2003-2004 campaign’s top-twenty finish.
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