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Men's and Women's Squash Prepare For Season Opener vs. Wesleyan
11/21/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Squash
The men's and women's squash teams kicked off their seasons in New Haven last weekend at the Ivy League Scrimmages. The players on both teams had been working extremely hard prior to official practice beginning on October 15th and they have continued to push themselves since then. Their effort and commitment has been admirable and we think in many cases the teams are showing vast improvement in their play, fitness and general squash knowledge.
The 2014-2015 season has brought some wonderful new freshmen additions to campus. Thomas Blecher, Thomas Walker and Charlie Blasberg have been a pleasure to work with and we are certain that with their considerable squash skills they will be huge contributors to the program for the next four years. We also welcomed sophomore transfer Alex Demeulenaere from Trinity College who has been rocketing up the lineup in the last few weeks.
On the women's side we welcomed freshmen Quincy Beck, Katherine Pisani and Lauren Kotin to the team. Quincy is currently playing #1 and has been working hard on her squash so she can compete with the other number 1's she will be playing this year. Katherine Pisani and Lauren Kotin are playing towards the bottom of the ladder but probably will not be there for long, both women have been competing fiercely in practice and have been coming in on their off time on mornings and weekends to keep honing their games.
The weekend began with both teams playing against talented Harvard teams. The men and women both fought tremendously hard but we lost both matches 9-0. Alex White played fantastically at #6 and lost in a tight 4 game match and Thomas Blecher began his career with a very tight 3 game match on the all glass show court. In the afternoon the men played against the Princeton Tigers and the women battled Cornell. The men's match was extremely tight, although the match score did not reflect it the games were hotly contested across the board. Thomas Blecher lost in a gut-wrenching 5 game match, Thomas Walker won in 3 games. The men went on to lose 8-1, but they had their heads held high after competing with such determination.
The women also had a very close match with Cornell. Emily Richmond lost in a four game battle as did Isabel Scherl, but ultimately the team lost 9-0. On Sunday both teams came out firing and both matches were very close. The women ended up losing 6-3 and the boys lost 8-1, but all the matches were close and the score truly could have gone either way. For the women Quincy Beck recorded her first collegiate win, Hannah Hay-Smith lost in a tough 4 games, Mina Shakarshy won in 3, Isabel Scherl lost in a close 4, and Katherine Elliot Moskwa came back from 2-0 down to win in five. On the guys side Thomas Blecher recorded his first collegiate win, Jack Blasberg lost in an amazing five game match against an excellent number 1 , and both Foster Hoff and Ross Freiman-Mendel lost in close 4 game matches. Although neither team recorded a win we think they learned a great deal and were very pleased with how they competed. We hope to see everyone on November 22 when we play Wesleyan.
