Following their sweep over the previously undefeated No. 16 Navy Midshipmen (11–2 overall), the No. 3 men’s squash team (2–0) extended their perfect start to the season with a 9–0 sweep over the No. 7 Drexel Dragons (4–2) at their new home in the Meadows neighborhood on Saturday afternoon.
“The locker room is full of energy and excitement,” senior Ahmed Hussein wrote to The Daily Princetonian. “Everyone is fired up and proud of how we came together as a team to deliver such a strong performance against Drexel.”
After narrowly falling to eventual champions Penn in last season’s national College Squash Association (CSA) Championship semifinals, the Tigers are looking to challenge for their first national title since 2012 this season. With seven out of the top nine players from last year’s run returning, and three new first-years, Princeton has started the season in cruise control over their opponents as this year’s roster has settled in.
The Tigers’ dominance over Drexel is highlighted by five of their nine matches being 3–0 shutouts: second-ranked Hussein, third-ranked senior Zain Ahmed, fifth-ranked first-year Aly Ibrahim, seventh-ranked junior Federico Sosa, and ninth-ranked senior Gordon Lam. From the 15 games within these five matches, only one game had a two-point gap in the scoreline, with the majority being blowouts.
The highly anticipated first-ranked match between junior Avi Agarwal and Drexel’s Haris Qasim started off with intensity from both men as they traded points. Qasim and Agarwal could be seen running into each other at various times as either side debated the calls. The intense first game went into deuce twice after 10–10 and 11–11 scorelines, but Agarwal was more critical with his shots and defeated Qasim 13–11. The match ended in a retirement from Qasim in the second game.
The other unfinished match was the rank-fours between Princeton’s senior Thomas Rosini and Drexel’s Fritiof Jacobsson. Rosini, a 2024 All-American and All-Ivy winner, dominated his first game 11–3, before winning on a retirement from Jacobsson.
Only two matches went to more than three games that afternoon. The first was the 6th-ranked match between junior Alhassan Khalil and Drexel’s Dumitru Goian. The two won a game each to start out 1–1, but Khalil’s resilience proved to outlast Goian as he dominated the next two games 11–3 and 11–7 respectively for a 3–1 match win.
The closest match was the 8th-ranked rally between first-year Yuvraj Wadhwani and Drexel’s Sean Murphy. Wadhwani, who entered Princeton this year as the No. 1 rank in India for the U19 boys division, fought intensely in his first game but was narrowly defeated by Murphy 9–11. But after the break, Wadhwani came out swinging, dominating Murphy in the next two games 11–6 and 11–4. Fatigue now set in, as Wadhwani fell in the fourth game 3–11. With a combined score of 34–32 in four games, Wadhwani and Murphy entered the box for the fifth and final time. Despite Murphy’s pushback, Wadhwani outlasted him 11–7 for a relieving 3–2 victory, maintaining the Tigers perfect record on the day.
The new squash facility on Princeton’s Meadow Campus is a landmark investment for the program. The players expressed their excitement for their new home court they get to defend.
“The new facility is incredible. The courts are top-class, and having access to such great resources, especially the glass courts, gives us even more motivation. It’s exciting to start building a strong home advantage here after so many years in Jadwin,” Hussein said.
After a successful two-game run at home, the Tigers will travel up to Massachusetts for their first away game of the season against the No. 11 Williams Ephs (2–1) on Saturday, Dec. 7 at noon. This will be their final game of the calendar year before returning to action in early January 2025, when they confront their toughest games of the year.
“This win is a big confidence boost and shows how much we’ve improved against a team that used to challenge us,” Hussein told the ‘Prince.’ “Our goals are clear: We want to defend our Ivy League title and compete for the national championship. At this level, the margins are small, but we believe we have what it takes to succeed with all those goals.”
Bryant Figueroa is a staff Sports writer for the ‘Prince.’
Please send corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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