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Another Good Weekend for Men's Squash
Tufts Agate | Colby Agate | Denison Agate | Yale Agate
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Franklin & Marshall's men's squash team strung together a 3-1 weekend at Yale. The 11th ranked Diplomats (12-4) knocked off Tufts and Colby 9-0 and defeated Dension 7-2. The lone setback came at the hands of #3 Yale, a 9-0 loss on the Bulldogs' home court.
With the pair of shutouts the Diplomats have now blanked the opposition in seven of the dozen wins. All four of F&M's losses this season have come at the hands of Ivy League Institutions, each of which ranked in the top ten.
Five players knocked off their opponents 3-0 in F&M's 9-0 win over Tufts. Ry Hawley and Patrick Pasquariello each went five against a Jumbo. After cruising to 9-1 wins in the first two games at the sixth position, Hawley dropped the next pair to Zach Bradley, 7-9 and 1-9. Hawley recovered in the final game with a 9-4 win to play his part in the shutout. Pasquariello fell behind 2-1, but took 18 of the final 20 points to secure the win.
In the 9-0 win over Colby, seven of the nine positions were won in three games. Shane Slater and Hawley each yielded just three points in their wins. Ben Lurio limited Steve Holt to five points at the seventh position. Fred Struse was equally dominant in his exhibition match, allowing five points to Griffin Richards.
Denison presented a more formidable challenge, taking two matches from the Diplomats, but F&M's depth sealed the victory. The Diplomats got clean sweeps at the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth positions as well as the first and third. Gabriel de Melo needed four games to dispatch with 98th ranked Edward Marks.
Yale returned the shutout favor on behalf of Colby and Tufts. The 9-0 win halted several impressive individual winning streaks for F&M. #2 Gabriel de Melo suffered his first collegiate loss after taking the first eight matches of his career. #3 Sadiq Madraswala took his first lump in nine matches dating back to a December 3rd loss to his Princeton opponent.
After the weekend, six Diplomats now have double-digits in the wins column this season. Nadaav Tannen leads the charge with a 12-3 record. Ben Lurio is 11-5. Four players have 10 wins on the year. Madraswala is 10-3, while Chris Gagnier and Hawley are each 10-5. Zarir Aibara is 10-6.
The Diplomats return to action this Friday with a home match against Rochester.
