This weekend the men’s squash team looks to test out its numerous fresh faces as it begins the season at the Ivy Scrimmage in New Haven, Conn.
“We basically want to see where we stand,” said head coach Mark Devoy. “We have a brand new team and a lot of new players.”
The Red lost many of its players from last season and now has a very young team including the top player, freshman Chris Sachvie, who won the U.S. Junior Open championship.
The team’s captains this season are seniors Rohit Gupta and Ted Hill. They hope to lead a very young and inexperienced team looking to continue to build on its No. 9 ranking from last season.
“Our goal is to stay at No. 9 and hold our position,” Devoy said. “I’m trying to gauge how our players are, how much we have to work and how our team is going to fare on the season.”
The Red has worked hard so far preparing for its upcoming scrimmage and training for big matches this season. Cornell hopes this scrimmage will help it see what kinks remain in the system to work on for its first official match against Franklin and Marshall on Nov. 17.
“This scrimmage will be good for us. Our young players will see what it is like to get some experience,” Devoy said. “It will be good match play and will help us see where we are in the pecking order.”
The team is confident that its players will be able to prove themselves on the court this season. Due to the squad’s lack of experience, the top players are going to be under pressure and be put in the spotlight.
“We want to see how our team performs under pressure,” Devoy said. “We will see what they have and they will see what they are capable off.”
Senior Geoff Tang is another leader of the Red who hopes to play well this season and help the team perform even better than their No. 9 position last year. Another team leader is junior Omar Mangalji, who hopes to have a strong season this year after being set back by injuries last season.
Traditionally the Ivy League has had some very strong squash teams including Princeton, Harvard and Yale, but the Red believes that its new faces this season may be able to give the tradition powerhouses a run for their money. The Ivy Scrimmage this weekend will help them see where they stand and see what they have to work on when they have their first official match. The men will face Yale, one of their stronger opponents, in the first round of the scrimmage.
“Hopefully we’ll see some good results,” Devoy said. “It’s going to be trial and error”