The men’s and women’s squash teams gained valuable match experience at Pennsylvania and Princeton this weekend. Both teams opened their season first against the Quakers on Saturday afternoon. The Big Red men worked the Quakers for an 8-1 victory and the women were edged out 5-4.
Five of the Big Red men whitewashed the Quakers, 3-0. Cornell’s No. 2 senior Raj Khanna, No. 4 sophomore Kenny Greer, No. 5 sophomore Jeff Porter, No. 6 junior Daryl Chow, and No. 7 freshman Jeff Fong cruised to victories.
Sophomores, No. 3 Neal Soo and No. 8 Tripper Hackscher sweated out 3-2 victories. Junior Chad Burkhardt finished with a 3-1 win at the No. 9 position.
“Our performance against Penn instilled a lot of confidence for [the] matches against Princeton,” said coach Scott Stoneburgh.
The women’s matches were hotly contested as the Big Red dropped the first four contests, but answered the bell by winning four of the next five. Cornell’s No. 5, senior Meghan Schwartz blanked her opponent 3-0. Senior No. 6 Sandy Hah and No. 7 freshman Lisa Marx both won 3-2. Sophomore No. 9 Katie Sadler rounded out the competition with a 3-1 triumph.
The men and women came in confident after their respective performances in Philadelphia the day before to Jadwin Gymnasium in Princeton. But both the men and women ran into the perennially strong Tigers yesterday and lost both contests 8-1.
“The final scores are not indicative of our performance,” said Stoneburgh, “as I was often running between contests witnessing close matches abound.”
For the men, Heckscher enjoyed the most success, but fell 3-1.
“The Princeton loss was disheartening,” said Stoneburgh, “and we realize that there is still a step to take.”
The women played some spirited matches as Schwartz pushed her opponent to the distance before falling 3-2. Marx continued her successful debut by winning her second Ivy match. She defeated Princeton’s Helen Smith 3-2.
Stoneburgh feels that “with some more work and practice we’ll be able to play at the level of a Princeton.”
The Big Red men have a couple of transfers coming from club programs who have successfully transitioned into the mentality of Ivy League play.
“Our transfers have previous tournament experience and shook their early jitters to have strong performances this weekend,” concluded Stoneburgh.
Both the men and women next host Harvard at the Belkin International Squash Courts on Dec. 2.
Archived article by Donald Lee