WILLIAMSTOWN, MA – After many arduous away weekends filled with long bus rides and foreign courts, the Williams men's squash team finally had their first home match at the Simon Squash Center. Friends and family packed the courts as they were anxious to see the Ephs defend their home territory, which they did in a forceful manner, winning 9-0 over their rival Middlebury.
Starting off in the first round for the purple cows was
Andrew Minnis who used his tight drives to take a swift 3-0 victory for Williams.
Pierce Henderson continued the momentum, the cheers from his court echoing as he hit outright winners to take the match 3-0. Last on the first round was Cameron Darnell who flew his way to victory in a short 3-0 match.
Their fearless Co-Captain
Udai Pal, known for his crowd-pleasing ability, attracted quite the audience. He won the first game 11-8, but then dropped the second. He won the second but lost 11-9 in a close fourth. However, Udai was determined to give the fans the win they deserved, and he did not disappoint, winning strongly 11-4 in the fifth.
Jack Lee had one of the quickest wins of the day, playing some of his best squash to win 3-0. And last up in the second round was
John Nicholson, who had a slow start and dropped the first game. However, after rethinking his tactics he swiftly won the next 3 games.
And starting off the last round of matches was Co-Captain Will Evans, who played excellent squash for the first two games, until his opponent unfortunately retired.
Asher Leavy absolutely dominated the court, not letting the physicality that his opponent brought to the match bring him down and won in a swift 3-0 match. And ending the day for the Ephs was
Alex Akbari, who stuck to his game plan and won 3-0, leaving the final score to be 9-0.
It was a great first home win against their rival today. Head Coach
Zafi Levy says "Another strong performance by the Men's team. From top to bottom we played hard against a very talented Middlebury team. We will try and repeat such strong performance against Tufts on Saturday."
