The squash teams put up a determined struggle this past weekend at the NESCAC Championships in Hartford, Conn., achieving mixed results but giving their opponents a hard fight.
The fourth-seeded men's team started its weekend on a strong note, dominating fifth-seeded Middlebury 8-1. The team took four 3-0 sweeps off the Panthers with shutouts coming from Peter Cipriano (No. 4), William Fantini (No. 7), Andrew Hilboldt (No. 8), and Thai Ha-Ngoc (No. 9).
The 15th-nationally-ranked Polar Bear men proceeded to fall to national powerhouse Trinity in the second round. The match did come with a silver lining though; first year Andrew Hilboldt (No. 8) won his game against Trinity's William Burchfield, bringing the final score of the match to 8-1 Trinity. This victory was an impressive achievement, as Bowdoin squash has not won a single game against top-nationally-ranked Bantams since the 2007 season.
The men then went on to battle Bates in a thrilling and close match before falling to the Bobcats 5-4. The Polar Bears, who had lost their regular season matchup against Bates received points from David Funk '10, Arun Makhija '10, Rahul Mohan Mohan '11, and William Fantini '13. The men ended the tournament in fourth place in the NESCAC and their record stands at 11-9.
The women began their weekend on Friday night at Wesleyan, falling in a close match to their hosts 5-4. They then rebounded over the course of the weekend, going on to demolish the Connecticut College Camels 8-1 and shutting out the Tufts Jumbos 9-0. Lauren Gesswein '11 and Elizabeth Warner '12 led the team, both going 3-0 for the whole weekend. The Polar Bears ended the tournament in ninth place.
Elizabeth Schetman '13 offered some perspective on her team's performance.
"The loss against Wesleyan was definitely difficult, but the team really came back for the rest of the tournament and played really well," Schetman said. "I think if we had played as well against Wesleyan as we did against Conn. and Tufts, it would have been a completely different story."
Coach Tomas Fortson said he was generally very pleased with both teams' performance.
"A very good weekend overall," he said. "Each team lost a nailbiter, but had excellent performances throughout the weekend. Many of our players took a significant step forward, and both teams are well prepared for the final stretch of training heading into nationals."
The men next play at the Team Nationals at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. on February 19-21. The women have one last regular season match at Colby on the February 13 before heading off to Team Nationals at Yale on February 26-28.