Coming off of a three-game winning streak, the women’s squash team went into their away match against Middlebury on Saturday with confidence. The Jumbos, ranked No. 11 by the College Squash Association, had dominated the Panthers the previous four times they played, winning 8–1 consistently with a 9–0 sweep in 2022.
The team, without a doubt, continued this streak with a 7–2 win, only faltering at the second and fourth spots in the ladder. The majority of the team won their matches 3–0, not even giving up one game.
The men’s team shared the 7–2 score, beating the Panthers convincingly and pushing them to try and beat the Ephs, who only ranked one spot below them. “Middlebury is always a tough opponent so to beat them convincingly on the men’s and women’s side was an excellent result for the Tufts women’s and men’s squash programs,” Head Coach Joe Raho wrote in an email to the Daily. “We took a wonderful training trip to San Diego where we competed with Denison University and got a win over them and the team has been using that momentum over the last few weeks. The team has been performing really well in the second semester with wins over Amherst(men and women), Dartmouth(women) and MIT(men).”
While both teams had the ability to take down the Ephs, they both fell just shy, losing 5–4. For the women, the top four seeds dominated, taking home three matches. First-seeded junior Vharsha Dinesh took down Melanie Wang in four, and third and fourth-seeds sophomore Maria Arsenieva and senior Riddhi Joshi respectively, swept Williams off their feet with 3–0 matches. Second-seeded first-year Sohni Vermani fell but not without giving a good fight to earn a game. Besides ninth-seeded first-year Indira Moshi, who found a four-game win, the rest of the team was unable to come through. Seventh-seeded senior Nieve Monderer saw an opportunity to get the win for her team in the fifth game at 10–10, however, Williams’ Amanda Solecki took the next two points winning the match 3–2.
“Overall we are frustrated but not disheartened,” Arsenieva wrote in an email to the Daily. “It’s been a long season but it will take more than just one bad day to bring us down. In hard times we lean on our amazing support system of coaches, sportsmed crew and most importantly each other as teammates. We are ready to take on nescac and D1 championships as a team stronger and tougher than ever.”
The men had to fight hard for their wins against the Ephs, with three of their four wins coming from matches that went to five games. Second-seeded sophomore Aarav Gill, sixth-seeded senior Youssef Ezzo and eighth-seeded junior Shivin Kumar took home marathon wins for the team. The other win came from a four-game match by ninth-seed first-year Ali Tarek. Senior Kerwin Teh found his way to the fifth game at the third spot in the ladder after narrowly taking the fourth 12–10. Despite the battle, he was not able to come out on top, falling 11–4 in the final game.
“Middlebury was a good result for us but we were definitely hoping to get the win over Williams,” Ezzo wrote in an email to the Daily. “Our matches with Williams have always been extremely close and it always comes down to one or two points in any given match. Looking forward we have our last home weekend of the year so we will look to make the most of that and enjoy the last moments of the season. Especially for the seniors these will be our last home matches of our careers so we will enjoy that as much as possible.”
After the teams make their final stretch this weekend with matches each day starting on Friday, they will compete in the NESCAC tournament before going to nationals. “We hope to follow up our results from last year with making the finals of nescacs again (we will likely have to beat Williams in order to do that) and then have a good showing at nationals as we hope to finish in the top 10 teams in the country,” Ezzo wrote.
Going into the last matches of the regular season, Raho sees the path for the Jumbos. “5-4 losses are always difficult to get over, but it is only one match, and we can bounce back,” he wrote. “You have to realize that you don't always have your best squash in every match that you play so you have to let it go and move on if you have a performance that you are not happy about. That's sports and the more you are able to bounce back, the stronger you are as a person and as a player. The plan for the rest of the season is to get a bit of rest and recovery right now and to come back with renewed enthusiasm, energy and focus this coming weekend. Hopefully we can end on a high note, and then go into the NESCAC championships with a hunger to switch our Williams result and to play our best squash when it matters most.”
Tufts will take on Bates Friday evening, Bowdoin on Saturday and Colby on Sunday, putting yet another regular season in the books.