Both the men's and women's squash teams breezed through their home stand this past weekend in the last matches of the regular season. The women emerged with a record of 5-0 and the men with a record of 3-0.
The women kicked off the first match of the weekend on Friday night, taking on the University of Toronto. The Polar Bears' top six players (Elena Laird '11, Lauren Gesswein '11, Kate Gormley '09, Alexandra Franceschi '09, Biz Gillespie '09, and Lizzy Warner '11) were unbeaten, ensuring a victory for Bowdoin, the first of two against Toronto over the weekend.
On Saturday, the women responded well to a day filled with three matches: They took care of Tufts, George Washington, and Toronto by scores of 8-1, 6-3, and 6-3, respectively. Through all three of the day's matches, the top six players were consistently unbeaten.
On Sunday, the women defeated the Northeastern Huskies with ease, 8-1. The weekend was a triumph for the women, as they took care of business marvelously against all of their opponents.
The men began their weekend on Saturday morning against Tufts, a team that, despite being ranked a few spots below Bowdoin, presented a challenge not to be overlooked.
Carrying momentum from their 5-4 win over Middlebury the weekend before, the Polar Bears played the type of squash they hope to produce at Nationals next weekend, and defeated Tufts by a score of 7-2. Wins came from the top seven players on the ladder (Andy Bernard '11, David Funk '10, Rahul Madan Mohan '11, Peter Cipriano '10, Robert Lynn '09, Thai Ha-Ngoc '10, and Arun Makhija '10). Funk played particularly well in the No. 2 slot, allowing his opponent only four points in his 3-0 rout.
Building on the morning victory, the men were able to defeat MIT by a score of 9-0 later that day.
The men played Northeastern the following morning, alongside the women. The men played well up and down the ladder, earning an 8-1 victory.
Needless to say, both teams were exceedingly happy with the results of the weekend, especially given that Nationals is this weekend at Harvard for the women, and next weekend at Princeton for the men.
"This positive energy and confidence going into the most important tournament of the year is hugely significant," said Adit Basheer '11. "We all know how important it was to take care of business this weekend."
Before both teams' matches against Northeastern on Sunday, the underclassmen paid tribute to the squash team seniors before their last home match by giving speeches, flowers, and gifts. In addition, the men's team sang the Scottish national anthem to senior Robbie Lynn, a Scottish native, complete with accompaniment by bagpipes.
The only competition remaining for both teams consists of the team Nationals tournament, occurring this weekend and next weekend, and the Individual Nationals tournament, which will fall on the weekend of February 28 at Williams College.