Squash takes Vassar and Northwestern to school

The men’s squash team rebounded after a devastating loss to Navy with decisive victories against Northwestern University and Vassar College. This came after a grueling week of practice for the entire team. “[The team] is showing improved fitness and did a great job,” Head Coach David Kay said.UR handily defeated Northwestern on Saturday 8-1. Senior Allen Fitzsimmons won 9-7, 9-0, and 9-4. Senior Dave Easwaran brought his best stuff on Saturday and swept two games. He won in 3 games 9-4, 9-0, and 9-0. Senior Pete Avitable, who performed admirably in last week’s loss to Navy, took revenge against his Northwestern counterpart. He left his opponent speechless by marauding him 9-1, 9-2, and 9-3.Junior Gen Izumida’s had to play a little harder to win his first game. After the 10-8 win, he finished off his opponent rather quickly the next two games, winning 9-3 and 9-4, respectively.Senior Drew Chapman cruised through his first two games with scores of 9-1 and 9-0. He won his last game only by a margin of 3, the score being 9-7.Sophomore Max Benjamin squeezed by with wins of 9-6, 10-8 and 9-7.Freshman Kelvin Ko won in three games 9-5, 9-2 and 9-4.Junior Sunit Chaudhry won a close first game 9-7 but fell 7-9, 7-9 and then 9-0.Sophomore Jay Acharya coasted through three games. He won 9-0, 9-1 and 9-0. Senior Andrea Murphy went to all five games in his match. He lost the first two 5-9 and 7-9. Murphy then took the next three games 9-7, 9-2 and 9-4 to win his match.UR rolled with the momentum of their win against Northwestern and brought the same intensity against unsuspecting opponent Vassar, The Yellowjackets won 7-2 to improve their record to 8-11.Co-captain Fitzsimmons defeated his competition by scores of 9-6, 9-2 and 9-2.Easwaran cruised through his three games. He swiftly disposed of his opponents by winning 9-0, 9-3 and 9-0.Avitable took his three games with ease 9-3, 9-6 and 9-4.Izumida lost his first game 7-9 but rebounded at won his next three with ease. The scores were 9-1, 9-0 and 9-2.Chapman won 9-3, then lost 5-9. He picked up where he left off in the first game by winning his next two 9-2 and 9-3.Benjamin dropped three games in a row to suffer a defeat. The only other loss was attributed to Chaudrhy. Ko and Acharya rounded out the positive day for the squash team with wins.”A big test comes this weekend in our final home match of the year against St. Lawrence University,” Kay said.The game is home and will be held at 1 p.m. on Sunday at the Goergen Athletic Center. Admission is free for UR students.Tice can be reached at ctice@campustimes.org.