On a Saturday that pitted men’s squash against two higher ranked teams, the bottom of the Cardinals’ lineup proved strong. Against the St. Lawrence Saints, the lower six seeds accounted for all of the Red and Black wins in its 6-3 victory. Later in the afternoon, the men fell to the Colby Mules 5-4 despite wins and close matches in the lower half of the ladder.
“[Wesleyan] was very strong and did not give up in any of their matches,” said Colby coach Sakhi Khan. “They were mentally tough and showed that they have a lot of depth in their lineup.”
With only two matches remaining before Nationals, the mixed results from the weekend left the men on the bubble in terms of reaching the coveted C flight ranking. Despite their win over 23rd ranked St. Lawrence, the men may lose out because the Saints polished off 17th ranked Colby in 7-2 fashion.
“Everything is up in the air,” said captain Umay Suanda ’05. “It’s all up to how the committee decides things now.”
While all the men who lost to Colby did so in 3-0 decisions, seventh seed Phil Wallach ’05 had the best opportunity to flip the final decision in the Cardinals’ favor. After dropping the first game and trailing in the second 8-4, Wallach came storming back to even the score at 8-8 and set up a tiebreaker. Despite the momentum shift, the Colby seventh seed regrouped and managed to gain serve and grab a 10-8 decision.
In the final frame, Wallach jumped out to a 6-3 lead and looked to be on his way to extending the match. Then a let call was made that Wallach made clear he thought should have awarded him a point. After this, the Cardinals’ seventh seed would never hold serve, dropping the match 9-6.
“I don’t think that one point really decided my match,” Wallach said, referring to the disputed call. “Rather, my opponent’s unorthodox style and his impressive retrieving skills took me off of my game a bit, so that I was never quite comfortable.”
Even with Wallach’s loss, the bottom of the ladder demonstrated the strength of depth Colby’s coach referred to. Led by captain Suanda in the sixth position, and including Ian Carbone ’06 and Than Chantaralawan ’05, the bottom of the ladder went a combined 7-1 over the weekend. Several of the matches were won relatively easily, as Suanda and Carbone allowed only nine points each in the Colby match and Wallach surrendered only five to his St. Lawrence opponent.
Though Chantaralawan has been away from the sport for almost a year, his performance has been impressive thus far, going 3-1 in his matches.
“I’ve been out for a whole year between going abroad and taking last semester off, so my game is still coming around,” Chantaralawan said. “Hopefully I will have it all put together by Nationals.”
This rustiness was evident at the start of the Colby game. While the Cards number nine easily jumped out to an 8-1 lead, he had difficulty finding his volley shots, often hitting the tin. Once the first game was in hand, however, Chantaralawan was able to cruise to a strong finish.
Though the top of the order was unable to produce against its opponents, several matches were well played or at the very least amusing to watch. In the second position, captain Andrew Rozas ’06 gutted out a match in which his injured knees continually bothered him. Grimacing from pain, Rozas still managed to scramble around the court and extend his Mule opponent.
The top seeded match was a contest between opponents who personified their team mascots. Taking the form of a flamboyant Cardinal, Andy Aylward ’07 created some amazing shots but was also quite demonstrative in his complaints about let calls. His Mule counterpart, however, was unfazed by Aylward’s antics and stubbornly played out a technically sound match.
The sole victory of the top three seeds came from Evan Lodge ’08, who gave his opponent few opportunities with an array of drop shots and rails that were routinely unreturnable.
Next week the Cardinals will be put to the test as they are every year with the Little Three match up. While the 2000-2001 squad challenged Amherst in a 5-4 match won by the Lord Jeffs, Wesleyan rarely is competitive with its two rivals.
“For Little Three, we just go there and try our best,” Chantaralawan said. “They are some of the best teams in the country, so we go there and hope to learn something from playing them.”
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