Squash Teams Drop Pair At Yale, Collect 11th Win Of Season

The Middlebury squash team had another action-packed weekend this past Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 18-20, with both the men’s and women’s teams traveling to New Haven, Conn., for the Yale round robin. Both teams played three matches over the course of the weekend.

The men’s team took on Cornell, Franklin & Marshall and George Washington University, while the women’s team had matches against Cornell, Franklin & Marshall and Yale. While the women were able to handle the Franklin & Marshall Diplomats with ease, winning 9-0, they struggled against Cornell and Yale, losing 9-0 to both of the perennial powerhouses. The men, meanwhile, had a tougher time with Franklin & Marshall and Cornell as well losing 9-0 and 6-3, respectively. They were, however, victorious in the match against George Washington, winning by a match score of 6-3.

In the men’s match against Cornell, the Middlebury seven, eight and nine-seeds, Harrison Croll ’16, Reed Palmer ’15 and Willy Clarke ’15, respectively, were able to pull off wins against their Cornell opponents.

These three also pulled off wins in their matches against George Washington. Their wins were complemented with wins from Parker Hurst ’14, Spencer Hurst ’13 and Andrew Jung ’16, en route to securing the victory. Both of the Hurst brothers beat their opponents in five-game matches in order to secure the wins.

For the men, the win versus George Washington will help their standing in the national rankings. Furthermore, many of their matches against Franklin & Marshall were close affairs, an encouraging sign for the team given that the Diplomats are ranked sixth in the nation.

This weekend’s match play also speaks to the depth of the squad, as many of the lower-seeded players were major factors in allowing Middlebury to compete against strong opposition.

For the 11-th ranked women, a win versus Franklin & Marshall should boost their national seeding, while losses against Yale and Cornell, who are ranked third and sixth, respectively as of Jan. 13, should have relatively little negative impact.

“We played really well by going 3-6 against a top-five Cornell team,” said captain Spencer Hurst. “Although we lost against F&M, all of the matches were close which is good for our team considering F&M is ranked six nationally. Our biggest match was against George Washington on Sunday and we were able to beat them, which is huge for our team. Overall we had an awesome weekend, and the depth that was demonstrated by our seven, eight, and nine seeds this weekend is key to going forward.”

This coming weekend, the men’s team will host the Middlebury Invitational in which the team will play matches against Columbia, Bard and University of Vermont, while the women will play one match against Columbia on Saturday Jan. 26. The matches will be pivotal for the Panthers in helping them prepare for the NESCAC championships, which will be played the following weekend. Both teams will be traveling to Trinity for the  NESCAC Tournament, which take place from Feb. 1-3. Last season, both the men and the women had third place finishes.