The men's and women's squash teams both enjoyed great success hosting the Maine Round Robin tournament at the Lubin Family Squash Center this past weekend. The women won an important and dramatic victory against Columbia University, and the men went 4-2 in a strong showing.
The men posted four straight 9-0 wins against Denison, MIT, Stanford, and Columbia before falling to Brown 5-4 in a hard-fought decision and being shut out 9-0 by Dartmouth. The weekend improved Polar Bears, who are now ranked No. 15 in the country, to a record of 10-7.
Rahul Mohan '11 and William Fantini '13 led the squad with four victories each, while Andy Bernard '11, Arun Makhija '10, Thai Ha-Ngoc '10 and Andrew Hilboldt '13 all finished the weekend with three wins each.
Head Squash Coach Tomas Fortson said, "This past weekend demonstrated that the men's team has improved much from last season and that we are at equal levels with the top teams of the B division [ranked 9-16 in the country]."
He also said that the loss to Brown was "heart-breaking but should prove to our players that if everyone plays up to their capabilities, this time can be very successful at nationals."
The Polar Bear women went 1-1 this past weekend, defeating Columbia in a dramatic comeback before falling to Brown's onslaught, 9-0. In the Columbia match the women rallied from a 3-0 disadvantage to win the next six games. Solid victories from Louisa Cannel '13, Bonnie Cao '13 and Elizabeth Warner '12 brought the Polar Bears even and the victory was clenched by wins from Lauren Gesswein '11, Elizabeth Schetman '13, and Katie Boyce '11.
The No. 10-ranked Brown Bears dominated the Bowdoin women, with No. 1 Gesswein scoring the sole point for Bowdoin in the defeat. At the close of this weekend, the record of the No. 23-ranked women's team stood at 4-9.
The women's match against Columbia this past weekend was a "significant come-from-behind victory," Fortson said.
"[We are] a very young team that is working hard and improving," he said.
Both the men and the women look forward to competing in the NESCAC Championship this weekend at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. The men are seeded fourth and will face off against Middlebury at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday. The ninth-seeded women will play the Wesleyan Cardinals at 7 p.m. on Friday night.
Fortson called this week's tournament "our last tune-up before nationals [that] will provide great opportunities to take that next step in the quality of our play."