Over the first weekend of Thanksgiving break the Amherst men’s squash team returned to the court, opening the season with two wins. On Friday, Nov. 17, Amherst bested NESCAC rival Tufts, before overwhelming Boston University the following day. Both matches took place at home at the Davenport Courts.

In their first match of the season, the Mammoths defeated the Jumbos in a 9-0 sweep. Terence Wang ’21 won on the first court 11-5, 11-5, 6-11, 11-5 in his first ever collegiate match. Meanwhile, David Merkel ’19 won the in second spot, Rob Parker ’21 won in the third slot, Cameron Bahadari ’18 won on court four and Pavan Nagaraj ’21 easily won in the fifth spot.

Reginald Brewster ’21, playing in the sixth spot, came out ahead in the closest match of the night, defeating his Tufts opponent in four sets, 11-7, 3-11, 11-9, 11-3. Mateen Mills ’20, Chris Zimmerman ’20 and Arnav Parikh ’21, making up spots seven through nine, all won in straight sets to close out the victory.

Amherst followed its rout against Tufts by similarly wiping the floor with Boston University in another 9-0 sweep.
The next day, once again, Wang led the way for Amherst by winning on the first court, 11-3, 11-3, 11-5. The Mammoths maintained the same positions in this match as they did in the previous match, and each Amherst player won his match in straight sets. A highlight of the match was Zimmerman, on court eight, who did not let his Terrier opponent score a single point in any game.

The Mammoths will look to continue their perfect start to the season as they return to action this weekend on Saturday, Dec. 2 when they will host a round robin tournament against Conn. College and Northeastern University at the Davenport Courts. After that, Amherst will be off for the rest of December before resuming play over interterm.