The 20th-seeded men’s squash team finished 21st in the nation after going 2-1 over the weekend in the Summers Cup (C Division) at the CSA National Team Championships held at Wesleyan Univ.
The Jeffs dropped their first match to Bowdoin before defeating Conn. College and Drexel Univ. to end their season on a high note.
The team came into their first match confident, having defeated Bowdoin earlier in the month at the NESCAC Championships, 6-3.
The men’s and women’s squash teams both went 3-1 on the weekend to finish fifth at the NESCAC Championships. For the men, who came in seeded seventh in the conference, it was an impressive finish that included upsets of Wesleyan and Bowdoin. For the women, it was an expected result as they were seeded fifth in the NESCAC coming into the tournament.
As the start of the new semester begins, the men’s and women’s squash teams head into the final stretches of what have been equally dramatic and unexpected seasons. The men, battling injuries all season, currently sit at 7-11 while the women, led by five first-year players, own an impressive 10-6 record and sit at 16th in the country — their highest position in recent Amherst squash history.
Men
After dropping into the consolation bracket of the CSA National Team Championships, the men’s squash team won its final two games of the season to capture the Summers’ Cup (C-Division) consolation prize.
In the opening match of the Jeffs’ tournament, Amherst fell to No. 23-ranked Colby Mules by a score of 2-7. At the Pioneer Valley Invitational earlier in the season (Jan. 22), the Jeffs had squeaked past the Mules, 5-4.
Despite losing its first four January matches, the men’s squash team managed to win its final four in impressive fashion.
The Jeffs began interterm action by dropping back-to-back contests to second-ranked Yale and 19th-ranked Bates, and their slide continued the following week against two more tough opponents, No. 14 Middlebury and No. 13 Brown.
On Nov. 30, both Amherst squash teams made short work of Vassar and began their seasons in strong fashion.
The men’s team won every game of the match by at least four points, an accomplishment underscored by the outstanding play of its freshmen. Scott DeSantis ’15 played at the top of the lineup, while Max Kardon ’15, the Jeffs’ number seven, shut out his opponent in two of his three games. Number two David Kerr ’14 did the same, and co-captain Steve Severson ’12 (number six) also earned an 11-0 game.
Men
The Lord Jeffs are coming off a 14-9 campaign, which is the best program record since 1977, that saw them finish 19th in the national rankings. They took home third place in the 2011 Summers Cup at the end of last season as part of the C Division, but they aim to return to the B Division this season, which means they will need to earn a rank between ninth and 16th nationally. If they succeed, the Jeffs will play in the Hoehn Cup in February, where they will hope to re-establish their place among the country’s elite programs.
