Squash competes at Yale University

The UR men’s squash team was busy at Yale University last weekend, playing a handful of challenging matches against various universities from across the country. The team lost its first four matches. The Yellowjackets were able to recover and win its last two matches against the University of California, Berkeley, and Wesleyan University.Number one freshman Patrick Harris and senior Dave Sokoloff both went 5-1 for the weekend. Their only loss came on Friday to their opponents from number ten-ranked Bates College. “[Patrick] really anchored the team and played some great squash,” Head Coach David Kay said. “Dave showed his leadership qualities as captain by winning some tough matches and keeping us in the hunt.”UR lost its three matches on Saturday, going 3-6 against Stanford University, Colby College and Connecticut College. The Yellowjackets were disappointed after the day’s close losses, especially to long-standing rival Stanford. The men were then able to muster what strength they could and performed better on Sunday.On their last day of competition, the Yellowjackets convincingly beat UC Berkeley, an emerging team, 8-1, and then went on to defeat Wesleyan 6-3. Senior captain Gen Izumida was able to win a tough match against Wesleyan, playing at the number two position. Junior Max Benjamin and freshmen Ben Hewson, Ravi Gupta and Jamie Lynn all played admirably throughout the weekend. They were able to gain experience, pulling out wins in tight matches.”The team played great and worked extremely hard to win the match [against Wesleyan],” said Kay. “I was very pleased as I felt that they had played as a team and acknowledged how much it takes to win at the collegiate level.”Lynn won 9-7 in the fifth and final game. This after having been down two games to one and 0-5 in the fifth game. Sokoloff came back from 0-2 and won the fifth game to take the match. Benjamin made a spirited comeback against his opponent and almost won his close match.Both of the team’s coaches are optimistic about future results with the team. With the squash season winding down, the coaches feel that the experience the players have already gained during the season will serve them well in the weeks to come.”The entire team showed strong determination to win the final two matches of the weekend after starting 0-4,” Assistant Coach Matt Dankner said. “Our strong finish to the weekend is a tribute to the team’s hard work and commitment to fitness. We are looking forward to our next series of matches at the Naval Academy in a couple of weeks.””We stand in good position moving into the end of the season,” Kay said. “We had some tough losses but came together as a team. I’m excited to see us challenge some of the teams ahead of us in the rankings in the coming weeks.”Ogorek can be reached at aogorek@campustimes.org.