The Hamilton men’s and women’s squash teams faced tough competition in four matches on Saturday, Jan. 20 and Sunday, Jan. 21 in Amherst, Mass.
The women, currently ranked 25th nationally by the College Squash Association, faced 30th ranked Haverford, 22nd ranked Colby, 27th ranked Mount Holyoke and 16th ranked Amherst, winning three of their four matches.
The men, ranked 26th, faced 31st ranked Haverford, 24th ranked Amherst, 23rd ranked Colby and 22nd ranked Massachusetts Institute of Technology, winning one of the four. Just past the halfway point of the season, both teams are 5–6 on the season with four regular season matches left to play.
On Saturday, the women dominated both matches, defeating Haverford 7–2 and Colby 6–3. In the Haverford match, Hamilton’s top two positions were defeated in five games, but positions three through nine won dominantly, each in only three games.
In the Colby match up, Hamilton received wins from Charlotte Zonis ’19 and Megan Grip ’19 in the second and third positions respectively. Caitlin Stern ’21 won in four games in the fifth position. Liesl Guenther ’21 battled to win in four games in the seventh position. Marina Hartnick ’18 and Danielle Reisley ’18 each won in three games in the eighth and ninth positions, respectively.
Grip said, “Historically, the two teams have played at a very similar level, with the game typically coming down to the final match.” The team was pleased to pull out a 6–3 win this year, after dropping the match to the Mules 5–4 in the 2016–2017 season.
On Sunday, the women split matches between Mount Holyoke and Amherst, defeating Mount Holyoke 7–2 and falling to Amherst 9–0.
Again positions three through nine were dominant on the court, bringing home the win for the Continentals.
The Hamilton women are receiving strong play from both their freshman, with Stern and Guenther playing in the 5th and 7th spots respectively.
Grip’s favorite parts about competing for Hamilton squash comes in tight matches like the one against Colby this past weekend.
“Nothing is more nerve racking and exciting then cheering your teammate on in the deciding match,” Grip said.
“It really goes to show the camaraderie of the team and how we support each other in good or bad times.”
The men had a tougher weekend, defeating Haverford 7–2 and falling to Colby 8–1, MIT 8–1, and Amherst 7–2, respectively. In the game against Haverford, Colin O’Dowd ’19 handily defeated his opponent in three games. In the second position, Callum Sondhi ’20 battled for the win in four games. In the fifth position, Tristan Chaix ’20 prevailed in three games. Atticus Jones ’18 won a close match in four games in the sixth position. Jonathan Ruth ’18 dominated in the seventh spot for the Continentals while Ward Urban ’18 pulled out a tough five-game match in the eighth position. Will Jordan ’20 rallied for the win in the ninth spot for the Continentals to finish up the competition.
Colby, MIT, and Amherst proved to be tougher opponents. O’Dowd was the only player undefeated on the weekend, winning all of his matches in the number one spot. Sondhi also prevailed in the match against Amherst but it was not enough for Hamilton to knock off the 24th ranked team.
Here’s what O’Dowd had this to say about the weekend: “Last weekend we played some tough in and out of conference matches, and despite some losses there were good lessons to learn moving forward into this weekend as we expect to have one of the closest matches of the season against Hobart William Smith, in which we hope to have our first victory in a few years against the Statesmen.”
Both the men’s and women’s teams had a chance to bond with their new freshmen — Stern, Guenther and John Sawyers ’21 — when they travelled to San Francisco to play Stanford on Jan. 9, a trip the team makes every four years. This year, the men’s team pulled out a 8–1 win while the women suffered a 9–0 loss. The team played a lot of squash, did team bonding activities like biking across the Golden Gate Bridge, and enjoyed an exciting Stanford basketball game in which Stanford defeated the University of Southern California by a score of 77–76 with a buzzer-beater finish.
The teams are excited to host the upcoming NESCAC Championship on Feb. 2–4 at the Little Squash Center. Members of the team cite this as some of the best squash of the season and a great opportunity to showcase Hamilton’s facility.
“The atmosphere in the courts is electric with lots of fans,” Grip said, adding, “Squash is a fast paced sport that is both easy and fun to watch.”
The matches in the championship will be energetic and competitive, sure to entertain many sports fans.
Before the NESCAC Championship, the men will be in action at home on Saturday Jan. 27 again Hobart William Smith at 12 PM and Trinity at 7 PM. The women will face St. Lawrence on Monday Jan. 29 in Canton, New York at 6 PM.
