Both the mens’ and womens’ squash teams struggled this past weekend in their respective divisions at the inaugural NESCAC’s Championships. This weekend, both teams will prepare for the prestigious National Tournament.
The 26 ranked men went 0-3 over the weekend, but were very competitive as they almost upset higher ranked Middlebury in the consolation tournament. Earlier in the weekend, the team was downed by a strong Tufts team ranked 16 in the nation. Even though the Cards faced a tough Tufts lineup, Wes fought hard as manifested by J.Z. Golden squeezing out the third game of his match by a score of 10-9.
After the loss to Tufts, the Cards faced Middlebury in the consolation round in a real nail biter. Evan Lodge ’08 and Benjie Messenger-Barnes ’09 both had easy 3-0 victories. Co-captain Omair Sarwar ’06 and Ian Carbone ’06 both won 3-1, placing the squash team in prime position for victory. The entire match came down to co-captain Andrew Rozas ’06’s match at number two where the score was knotted at 2-2. Unfortunately, Wesleyan wasn’t able to pull off the upset as the team was downed by the Jumbos.
The close loss was obviously disappointing, but Coach Shona Kerr thought the team would be stronger from the experience.
“We all but beat Middlebury with the result really coming down to a dropped 3-2 match,” she said. “I think this was a good example of how important every single match, game and rally is when it comes down to the final result and will make us a tougher team for it.”
In the other consolation match of the weekend, the Cardinals lost a close 7-2 match to Connecticut College. The match was far closer than the score indicated and could have swung in the Card’s favor as they dropped three matches by 3-2 decisions. The wins for Wesleyan came at the top of the ladder as Lodge won 3-0 at number one and Rozas won 3-1 at number two.
J.Z. Golden summed up the team’s experience at the NESCAC’s.
“A win would have been great, and the opportunities were there,” he said. “As it stands, NESCACs served as a great tune-up to get where we need to be for nationals.”
This coming weekend will be critical for the men’s team as they will be competing in the aforementioned Nationals at Princeton. The National tournament is the end of the squash season and the most important set of matches for the Cards. The Cardinals are competing in the Conroy Division, and have an excellent chance to win their flight. They are seeded second and already defeated number one seed Northwestern earlier this season.
“For the men I know that if the team play to their potential we can win the ”D“ division and come away with some silverware,” Coach Kerr said. “It will most likely require beating Vassar for a third time – not a walk over by any means and beating Northwestern for a second time, again not a match to be taken lightly.”
The men’s team is excited about the possibility of bring a winner’s trophy back to Middletown this weekend.
“We’re in it to win it,” Golden said. “Our goal is winning D-flight. We know if we play to potential we’ve got this thing. It’s the end of a long season, so there’s no reason to hold anything back. We’re all pumped.”
Women’s Roundup
The 25 ranked women’s team also had a difficult weekend at NESCACs as they dropped all three matches. The Lady Cards dropped their first match to 12 ranked Connecticut College by a score of 8-1. Kate Jones ’06 had the lone win for Wesleyan as she was victorious 3-1 at the number nine spot.
Jones has been the hottest player of late for the women’s team, as her win brought her winning streak to four matches. The team’s final matches of the NESCAC tournament were matching 9-0 consolation losses to number 21 Tufts and number 23 Hamilton. Several women had competitive matches against Hamilton, as four matches were decided by the score of 3-1.
This weekend, the women’s team travels to Harvard to compete in the Howe Cup, the Women’s National Tournament.
“[W]e now work and play as a team, this was not there at the startof the season,” Kerr said. “We have worked on consistency, strategy and very distinct styles and patterns of play along with fitness and mental toughness; I think we are overall playing much smarter and mentally tougher squash than at the start of the season.”
The lady Cardinals are hoping this improvement pays dividends with a successful performance to end their season at Nationals.
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