Eph Men's Squash Falls to 6th Ranked Dartmouth 6-3

WILLIAMSTOWN, MA--On senior night at the Simon Squash Center, the Williams Men played their last dual match of the season. Powered by strong performances by the three seniors on the team, the Ephs had a shot at what could have been the biggest upset of the college squash season. In the first round of matches, Williams went down 2-1. Varun Sharma '16 (#9) played great squash in order to secure a four game win. Another senior, Michael Petrick '16 (#5) then won the first two games of his match. His opponent then defaulted, giving the Ephs their second point and evening the match at two all. Then, John Fitzgerald '19 (#2) and Neel Jain '19 (#8) both lost in three games, giving Dartmouth a 4-2 lead. Williams needed all three remaining matches in order to win, and for a moment, it looked as if it was possible. 

In the final round of matches, David Pincus '19 (#7) and Jamie Ruggiero '17 (#1) both took the first games of their matches, putting the Ephs in a good position. Unfortunately, however, Galen Squiers '16 (#4) went down 2-0. Ruggiero won the second game of his match, while Squiers battled back from being down 10-7 to tie it at 10-10. Squiers then got unlucky in two points and lost the match, giving Dartmouth the match. At this point, Pincus was tied at 2-2, while Ruggiero was playing great squash on the top court. Ruggiero dropped the third game, but then won the fourth handily, giving the Ephs their third point. Pincus got the fifth game to 10-10 after being down in the game early, but lost 12-10 in the fifth. Coach Levy was impressed with the Ephs performance. He said: "I am very happy with how the team is playing going into nationals next week. I think we have improved alot over the past month and am excited to see what we can do."

Next up for the Williams men is a week of training followed by a trip to Nationals in Hartford, CT.