Mixed success for men's and women's squash teams

The Princeton men’s and women’s squash teams were both active this past weekend as they closed out the year of 2015 with a combined five matches at home. The eighth-ranked men’s team (2-4) entered the weekend with a 1-2 record, both losses previously having come to teams ranked in the top 10 in the nation. The women’s team (4-0) had played two matches coming into the weekend and still has yet to lose one of the 36 individual matches played this season. The men played two matches on Saturday, starting with a dominant 8-1 victory over Williams before falling to St. Lawrence later that day. Additionally, the Tigers lost to Rochester the next day. The women (4-0) also played Williams and St. Lawrence on Saturday, winning both matches in quick fashion.

The men opened the weekend with a strong victory over Williams, 8-1. Led by three freshmen at the top of the list, Cody Cortes, Clark Doyle and Spencer Anton all won their matches in dominant fashion. Cortes was the only person to drop a game of the three, before clinching the match by a score of 11-2 in the fourth for his first collegiate win. The Tigers as a whole only dropped five total games in the match. Later on Saturday, the men’s team faced third-ranked Saint Lawrence, last year’s College Squash Association finalist. Junior Vivek Dinodia, sophomore Abhimanyu Shah and freshman William Oon accounted for all three Tiger victories in this match at the seven, eight and nine spots, respectively. Senior Michael LeBlanc lost his match in five games after leading 2-1 in games. Every other match, with the exception of Cortes’s match, was lost by a score of 3-1.

The women’s team continued its 2015-2016 season domination with two 9-0 victories over Williams and Saint Lawrence. Williams was ranked 12th in the nation while Saint Lawrence was ranked 20th. One of the highlights of the two matches included freshman Samantha Chai winning her first two collegiate matches of the year at the number nine spot against Williams and the number five spot against Saint Lawrence. Chai only lost seven points in the first match. Additionally, freshman Kate Feeley only lost two points in her match against Saint Lawrence at the number six spot. The women did not drop a single game against either of the two teams and have now won 108 of the 112 games that they have played this season.

On Sunday, the women’s team did not play while the men faced off against fourth-ranked Rochester. While the top six players were only able to muster two games, the bottom of the ladder once again proved to be a handful. Shah had the lone victory for the Tigers, winning his match 11-2, 11-6, 11-8 at the number eight spot. Dinodia and Oon both lost the first two games of their matches before storming back to tie at two games apiece. They lost their fifth sets 11-8 and 12-10 respectively. Both the women’s and men’s teams do not have any more matches before winter break. When they return, the two teams begin Ivy League play against Dartmouth and Harvard.