Williams Squash Opens the Season 1-2

The Williams Men's Squash team opened the season against three tough opponents this weekend at the Simon Squash Center. On Friday night, the team played the 5th ranked Columbia Lions in what they knew would be a tough match. In the first round of matches, Mason Elizondo '18 (#9) showed determination and perseverance to take his Lion opponent to five games, and eventually win. It was a great performance by Mason in his first match of the season. In the second group, captain Michael Petrick '16 (#5) was able to take two games off of his opponent, but unfortunately lost in a marathon of a match. Overall, it was a good performance by the Ephs, but they had to quickly shift gears and change their focus towards the Western Ontario Mustangs. 

Going into the match, the Williams team knew that it would be a tough, but winnable match. The Ephs started strong, with commanding wins from Neel Jain '19 (#9), Varun Sharma '16 (#8), Captain Galen Squiers '16 (#6), and David Pincus '19 (#4). These victories were followed by great performances by Jamie Havran '18 (#7), Michael Petrick '16 (#5), John Fitzgerald '19 (#3), and Jamie Ruggiero '17 (#1). These were great wins for Fitzgerald, Pincus, and Jain, as we hope they are the firsts of many as Eph Squash Players. Williams was ble to rise to the occasion and win the match decisively, 8-1.

After a two-hour break, Williams had to get right back onto the court for a match with the Cornell Big Red. In the beginning, it looked to be close, as Galen Squiers (#6) was able to down his opponent, while Mason Elizondo (#9) and John Fitzgerald (#3) lost closely. Cornell kept that momentum going through the next two rounds of matches, despite hard-fought efforts from the Ephs.

Coach Levy was happy about the weekend. The Ephs knew that Columbia and Cornell would be very tough opponents, but the match scores do not really reflect how clsoe some of the individual match scores were. Hopefully this solid performance by the Ephs builds momentum over their two-week hiatus, after which they will travel south for matches against Princeton, Penn, and Drexel.