PHILADELPHIA, Penn. - The Williams College men's squash team lost a tight 6-3 decision to Tufts University on Saturday, closing the team's season with a #12 national ranking. The Ephs battled to the end against their NESCAC foe in the final match of the Potter Cup at the College Squash Association National Team Championship.
The Ephs played their final match without its usual #1 player on the ladder, Nick Agger, who was out due to injury, so the rest of the team played up a spot, and even so, Williams nearly came away with the win. The Ephs won at #1, with Hamanshu Pannu pulling out a victory in one of his first matches back from injury, at #4 through Will Newton, and at #9, with senior Leonard Lee ending his career with a win.
The first matches on court were Asher Leavy at #2, Dylan Scott at #6, and Rafay Syed at #8, and Tufts was able to get a quick 2-0 lead after winning 3-0 at #2 and #8. Scott's match was an epic, as the first-year won the first game, lost the next two, and then forced a fifth, but the Jumbos player won a narrow deciding game 13-11 to give Tufts a big lead.
The Ephs then tied things back up and swung the momentum back in their favor, as the team's three wins all came in quick succession. Pannu won 3-0 (11-4, 12-10, 11-2), and Lee won three straight games after dropping the first for a 3-1 victory (7-11, 11-9, 11-5, 11-7). Newton then earned his second victory of the Potter Cup after having beaten a player from Columbia in the team's opener at the tournament, this time taking five games and battling back from a 2-0 deficit (8-11, 8-11, 12-10, 11-1, 11-5).
The match was tied 3-3 going into the last three matches on court, but the Jumbos were able to slip past the Ephs with wins over Alex Akbari at #3, Leighton Calhoun at #5, and Ty Green at #7. Akbari and Calhoun both won a game in their 3-1 losses, and Green battled back from 1-0 and 2-1 down but couldn't capture the fifth.
With the result, the Ephs finish the season with a #12 ranking, the same as they had entering this final tournament of the season, having had multiple highlights throughout a very strong season. The team will miss a strong senior group that provided leadership and strong play throughout their careers, with Akbari, Leavy, Lee, Syed and John Nicholson and Gabe Ramirez all graduating.
