Squash started off their season against a familiar opponent Franklin & Marshall and suffered a familiar result, a 9-0 loss to a much stronger team. But the loss wasn’t a set back to the Yellowjackets, as they had no expectations of gaining a win against the higher Division I nationally ranked squad. It was more about the experience.
UR is currently ranked 25th, while Franklin & Marshall is 14th in the country.
“It was definitely so everyone could get match experience,” number three position and junior Dave Easwaren said. “The beginning matches lead up to next semester [when people] naturally get better because they are playing every day. We step our play up a level.”
Number five position and senior Pete Avitable agreed.
“A lot of us just started playing squash in college. It is a good indication of experience,” he said.
The Yellowjackets failed to win a set, but most of the individual matches were competitive.
“It wasn’t really a blow out,” Avitable said. “No one dropped the ball.
“We really had nothing to lose,” he continued. “They were 11 spots better than us in the national rankings. We were expected to lose to them.”
Upcoming
If the first match for squash was one for the team to gain experience, the next two matches on the same day in early December against Colgate University and Hamilton College are ones the team definitely hopes to win. Both teams are ranked slightly below UR in the rankings.
“We definitely have the potential to beat them soundly,” Easwaren said. “These are ones we should win.”
UR beat Colgate twice last year, but lost its first match in the fall to Hamilton. The team bounced back in the spring to defeat the same Hamilton squad.
The team hopes to slowly move up the ranking throughout the year to improve its final seed in the National Tournament.
