After losing to first-seeded Tufts 1-8 in its first game at Nationals, the men’s squash team pulled off a 5-4 upset of fifth-seeded Middlebury to reach the consolation finals. There, it lost a close 4-5 decision to Stanford to finish 22nd nationally in the tournament held in Boston and Cambridge at Harvard University.
The Cards’ lone winner against Tufts was freshman Dale Kobrin ’11, who managed a 3-2 victory in the number eight spot. Co-captain JZ Golden ’08 was the only one other member of the team able to win even two of the three games required to win a match. This first-round loss knocked the team out of contention for the top spots in the tournament, but set up an intriguing battle with Middlebury in the consolation finals.
The first time the two teams met, back in January, Wesleyan dropped a hard 2-7 decision to Middlebury. This time, though, the team swapped pairs of wins and losses, and Tyler Snell ’09 won the deciding ninth game of the match convincingly, 3-1. This upset win led the team to its final match of the season against Stanford University.
While the number one and number two spot players for the Cards, Robert Broadfoot ’10 and Matt Candal ’11, swept their games 3-0 each, the middle of the lineup struggled. The number three through number eight spot players yielded a combined 1-5 record, dropping enough games for Stanford to clinch a 5-4 victory.
The tournament closed out an up-and-down season for Wesleyan, whose fortunes varied dramatically on the road and at home. At one point during the December-to-February season, the team was a combined 7-0 when playing at home. This streak was, unfortunately, coupled with a string of disappointing showings on the road. The Cards were a combined 1-8 in their final nine road matches.
In the end, the team finished with a 10-11 record overall. Kobrin led the team with 12 games won, and finished with a 12-9 record overall, mostly from the number seven and number eight spots in the lineup. The player with the most impressive winning percentage was Snell, who had a winning record in all three spots that he played in during the season. He finished with a combined 8-4 record.
Interestingly, each member of the team was almost always more successful when moved up a spot in the lineup. While most played the majority of their games in one or two spots, there is a conspicuous abundance of “1-0” records across the board in higher-spot games. This speaks to the performance of these players in big games during the season.
The team is slated to lose three seniors next season—Evan Lodge ’08, Devin Gorman-DaRif ’08 and Golden. Even so, among the 12 members of the team, there are seven underclassmen and just five upperclassmen. Particularly notable among starting freshmen is the fact the Matt Candal ’11 was a perfect 4-0 in the number one spot.
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