Men
The 22nd-ranked Amherst men’s squash traveled to Harvard this past weekend to compete in the 2014 College Squash Association Team Championships.
Amherst competed in the Summers Cup, the Division C bracket, where they were seeded fifth out of eight teams. In the first round of play, the Jeffs fell to 19th-ranked Brown University, 7-2.
Noah Browne ’16 picked up one of the team’s two victories of the day, winning 3-2 by a score of 2-11, 11-8, 7-11, 11-7, 12-10 in the top slot. Amherst’s only other victory came from first-year Darian Ehsani, who defeated his opponent in three games on the No. 7 court.
The loss to Brown sent Amherst to the consolation bracket, pitting them against Colby for the second round of play. The Jeffs defeated the Mules for the third time this season, earning wins in four of the top five slots and also a win out of the No. 8 position.
Browne continued to dominate for Amherst, shutting out opponent CJ Smith in three games. Scott DeSantis ’15 continued his hot streak by defeating his opponent, 3-1. Fellow juniors Alex Southmayd and Max Kardon maintained their consistency this season by notching two more victories. Rounding out the wins for Amherst was first-year Jeremy Van, playing No. 8.
After defeating Colby, Amherst moved on to face 21st-ranked Bowdoin in the consolation bracket championship, a rematch from the NESCAC tournament the weekend before where the Jeffs lost 5-4. Amherst would encounter the same result this past weekend, losing again 5-4.
DeSantis earned an impressive victory in the No. 2 spot, winning his match in five highy contest games by a score of 11-8, 6-11, 8-11, 11-4, 12-10. Captain David Kerr ’14 was victorious in the No. 3 spot, 3-1, and Kardon swept his opponent in the No. 5 spot. Van closed out the weekend with a 3-1 win in the No. 8 spot to end his rookie season on a high note.
“If football is a game of inches, squash is a game of centimeters”, Southmayd said. “This weekend was bittersweet for the men’s team, squeaking by Colby 5-4 only to lose 4-5 to Bowdoin the very next day.”
After this weekend of play, the Jeffs finished their season 7-12. The 2013-2014 campaign will come to a close when selected players compete at the CSA Individual Championships, held at Penn, starting Friday, Feb. 28.
Women
The Lady Jeffs defeated local rival Mount Holyoke last Wednesday afternoon, 7-2.
Ericka Robertson ’16 battled the Lyon’s Randima Ranaweera in the top spot, falling 1-3. After losing the first set 3-11, the sophomore bounced back by winning the second game, 11-9; however, she couldn’t clinch the next two competitive games, losing them 9-11 and 7-11. In the No. 2 spot, junior Arielle Lehman also lost her match, falling to Sherouk Khefagy in three games.
Courts three through seven, however, resulted in victories for the Jeffs. In the No. 3 spot, Meyha Sud ’16 swept her opponent 3-0, while first-year Tianna Palmer-Poroner won her match in the fourth spot 3-1. Evelyn Kramer ’14, Khushy Aggarwal ’16, Taryn Clary ’16, Corri Johnson ’16 and Lena Rice ’14 all swept their opponents 3-0.
Notably, Clary extended her win streak to seven matches and now has a team-high 12 wins on the season. Captain Rice also continued her impression senior season in the No. 9 spot, as she crushed Anna Hartman, 11-0, 11-3, and 11-3, to capture her 10th win on the season in her final home match.
Amherst will travel to Princeton this weekend, Feb. 21-23, to compete in the CSA Women’s Team National Championships.
