The NESCAC Tournament did not go as well as planned last weekend, as the men’s squash team dropped all three games to opponents Tufts, Middlebury, and Colby.
The Cardinals faced the Jumbos, the sixth ranked NESCAC team, last Friday at Trinity College and fell by a score of 9-0. Wesleyan came in eleventh in the tournament and never was able to get going against a focused Tufts team.
The next day, Wesleyan’s own Rosenbaum Squash Center was host to the consolation round of the tournament, where the Cardinals faced Middlebury and Colby. Both matches were close and intensely contested, but both were recorded as 5-4 losses. Several players turned in solid performances on the day, as Evan Lodge ’08, Tyler Snell ’09, and Nate Fowles ’10 each won both their matches.
“We were as close you could come to beating Colby and Middlebury,” Fowles said. “It obviously didn’t go in our favor, but it was definitely a step the right direction as we move toward nationals.”
The road toward Nationals will most likely be a treacherous one, as Wesleyan competes in the Little Three tournament this weekend. Williams and Amherst both boast impressive résumés and, with the tournament being held at Williams, there will surely be a tough road crowd to contest.
“Williams and Amherst are two of the top teams in the nation,” said Benjie Messenger-Barnes ’10. “They will have all their grandparents and aunts and uncles there watching, so we look forward to the challenge. We like playing outside of our comfort zone and challenging ourselves against good opponents.”
The Little Three matches should test the Cardinals and expose them to the type of talent that they will face at nationals.
“Our focus will be keeping long rallies and showing that whether or not we can beat them, we can hang with them,” Fowles said.
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