Squash opens season at Harvard

The men's and women's squash teams both faced opponents on both ends of the spectrum in their first matches of the season, held Saturday at Harvard University.

Both teams faced Williams, which represented a tremendous challenge, and Connecticut College, a school that both teams expected to beat fairly easily.

Coach Doug Eng said at the beginning of the season that one of his goals for the teams was to defend their positions and beat the teams they were capable of beating. The Jumbos took the first step to achieving that goal, as the women defeated Connecticut College 9-0 and the men won 7-2. Neither team could match up with Williams, as both the men and women fell 9-0. A third match scheduled with Brown was postponed because of transportation issues.

Despite losing by such a large margin to Williams -- neither team won a game -- both teams felt it was a valuable learning experience.

"Everyone held up alright against Williams," senior co-captain Jordan Kolasinski said. "We get a lot out of playing opponents who are a few levels above us. It's really beneficial to get a feel for that quality of play."

Senior Leigh Checchio, the captain of the women's team, agreed with Kolasinski.

"Williams was ranked a lot higher than us, so it was a real tough match, but I thought we did fine," Checchio said.

The women had no problems with Connecticut College, even though it was the first competitive match for the freshmen. Freshman Jules Avrutin led the way for the Jumbos, winning in five games at the number one spot (9-2, 9-0, 7-9, 7-9, 9-1). Another freshman, Erica Adler, performed well at the number two spot, winning (9-10, 10-8, 9-2, 9-5). A third freshman, Liz Thys also played solidly for the Jumbos, winning easily at the number eight spot.

Eng was impressed with the performance of his freshmen.

"In the first match of the season you're going to be nervous, but the freshmen played real well," Eng said. "Jules and Erica were both very good. It was a good start for them and the entire team played well."

Checchio won easily at the third spot, despite playing her first match in well over a year.

"I went abroad last year so I hadn't played in quite awhile, so I was pretty nervous," she said. "But I calmed down and I think I played pretty well."

Junior Nicole Arens won easily at the number four position, and juniors Nida Ghouse and Eliza Drachman-Jones followed suit at five and six respectively. Senior AJ Crane battled at number seven and prevailed in four games. Sophomore Joelle Polivy rounded out the successful match for Tufts by having no trouble at the number nine position.

Checchio felt the team played very well in its first match.

"We were expecting to win, but not by a score of 9-0, so I thought it was a very good performance," she said.

The men also had a successful match against Connecticut College, despite a few nervous moments at the beginning of the match.

"It was a little closer than we expected at first," Eng said. "We thought our closest matches would take place near the middle of the lineup, and we lost a couple of those, so it was a bit scary. But we picked it up later and our guys at the front and end of our lineup played well."

Sophomore Spencer Maxwell won in four games at the number one position (6-9, 9-3, 9-4, 9-5). Tom Keidel, also a sophomore, prevailed in five games at number two (9-5, 6-9, 9-1, 6-9, 9-7). Kolasinski won in four games, while sophomore Pranav Tripathi fell in a hard-fought five-game-match.

"It was a tough match for Pranav," Eng said. "He played well, but I'd like him to be more aggressive."

Sophomore Dan Karlin won at the number five spot for Tufts, while senior Alex Busse fell at number six.

"Alex was in a real tight match," Eng said. "It was actually his first competitive match with us, so I thought he did fine. He just couldn't quite put the ball away in some cases."

Senior co-captain Jesse Goldberg, junior Fernando Kriete, and freshmen Dave Linz all won easily for Tufts at the seventh, eighth, and ninth positions respectively.

Eng was satisfied with the men's performance.

"Things weren't happening quite the way we wanted at first, but it was just our first match. The guys played hard, they played pretty well and we're happy," he said.

Kolasinski echoed Eng's comments:

"Everyone played a really good match against Connecticut College," Kolasinski said. "They've sort of been a rival in the past, so it was a solid win."

The team should be more relaxed and ready for itss next challenge on Dec. 6 when it plays Trinity and St. Lawrence.

"Trinity is incredibly good and St. Lawrence is strong too, so we're gonna have our work cut out for us," Kolasinski said.