Last Wednesday, the UR men’s squash team traveled to Clinton, N.Y. to take on Hamilton College. The team suffered a disappointing defeat, losing to Hamilton 6-3.
Freshman Patrick Harris, No. 1, senior Gen Izumida, No. 2, and freshman Ravi Gupta, No. 8, had UR’s only wins.
All three matches were quite competitive. Harris defeated Anthony Bardaro, 1-9, 9-5, 9-4, 10-8, Izumida defeated Duncan Cameron, 8-10, 8-10, 9-5, 9-1, 9-0, and Gupta defeated Andrew Brooks, 3-9, 3-9, 9-5, 9-4, 9-2.
“The match against Hamilton was a challenge for the team,” Head Coach David Kay said. “We had been excited about the match and working the team with increased drills and emphasis on fitness. Hamilton’s courts are not regulation, and we were at a disadvantage having not practiced on courts of those dimensions.”
UR had hoped to improve their ranking with the match. However, the loss to Hamilton kept UR’s ranking as No. 25 in the nation.
UR would prefer competing in the more challenging third division at the College Squash Association Nationals at Harvard University at the end of the month, but must improve their ranking to No. 24 in order to do so.
In order to achieve the No. 24 ranking, UR must defeat St. Lawrence University this coming Sunday. After losing to SLU 7-2 in the fall, UR hopes to even the score this time around.
The team’s coaches are confident that a stronger commitment to fitness will help the players win the matches against SLU that might last longer and go into a fourth or a fifth game.
“We lost a couple of tight matches that could have turned the match [against Hamilton] for us,” Kay said. “We need to build on our fitness and get stronger with our shot selection over the next two weeks.”
UR’s last home match of the season will take place Feb. 23, against the University of Western Ontario at 5 p.m.
Ogorek can be reached at aogorek@campustimes.org.
