The men’s squash team traveled to Connecticut on Saturday to play Wesleyan, the 20th ranked team in the nation. Though there were two five-game matches and a pair of four-game encounters, the team left winless, losing 9-0 to the Cardinals.
The three co-captains, junior Aditya Advani, and seniors Zachary Schweitzer and Elliot Kardon played in the first, second and fourth positions, respectively.
Advani was able to win a few points in each game, but lost in straight games to junior tri-captain Guy Davidson.
Schweitzer’s affair was more competitive, but after taking the first game 9-11, he came out on the losing side of the next three games, all of which were very close and came down to the last few points. Schweitzer lost 9-11, 11-8, 12-10, 11-9.
Kardon, like Advani, also had a straightforward loss, and was only able to pick up 14 points in an 11-8, 11-5, 11-1 defeat.
The two closest matches came from sophomore Josh Lee and senior Hugo Meggitt. Lee, from Korea, and Meggitt, from New Jersey, played in the sixth and ninth positions, respectively.
Lee took his opponent all the way to a fifth game. He started the match by dropping the first game 11-8, but after a regrouping for the middle portion of the match, the sophomore was unable to fully close out his adversary, falling 11-8, 6-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-7.
Meggitt’s story was the complete opposite, but still ended with the same result. After winning 8-11 in the first game, Meggitt lost the next two before winning the fourth. In the decider his opponent closed it out, defeating Meggitt 8-11, 11-3, 14-12, 8-11, 11-6.
On Tuesday, the team traveled to MIT. This time the Jumbos came out victorious, proving to themselves that their positive preseason reviews weren’t a fluke.
This time around Advani came out on top. Playing in the first spot against sophomore Tyler Finklestein, Advani only allowed 18 points in his 11-3, 11-6, 11-9 victory over his opponent.
Playing second, Schweitzer lost in a very close five-game match. After winning the first game, Schweitzer lost the second, before winning the third. Unfortunately his wins ceased as he dropped the last two games to lose the match 11-13, 11-5, 8-11, 11-5, 11-9.
Schweitzer’s loss may come as a surprise to some people as Schweitzer won all but one match during his junior campaign.
Though Lee lost once more, Kardon and Meggitt came out victorious in four-game and three-game victories, respectively.
“Wesleyan is a very strong team and everyone played their best that day,” Advani said. “There were some very close matches that could have gone either way. Although [it was] a tough loss, the team is going to come back with a bang for our next few matches. We showed that against MIT yesterday and will bring the same energy to our matches this weekend.”
Next up for Tufts is a home match against Connecticut College on Saturday. This is the first home match for the Jumbos and their second NESCAC match.
Squash team bounces back from season-opening loss
Tufts junior, Elliot Kardon, loses 3 out of 4 games in his match against BC at the Belmont Hill courts where Tufts Men's Squash plays against Boston College on Wednesday night, January 29th, 2014.
