January 21, 2009

Squash Shows Promise but Falters Against Bulldogs

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The men’s and women’s squash teams each hosted highly-regarded conference foe Yale over the weekend. While both sides saw some encouraging results, especially from the Red’s underclassmen, the Bulldogs came out on top on Saturday.
[img_assist|nid=34263|title=Deep strides|desc=Steven Peever (right), like the Red as a whole, went 1-1 over the weekend. The No. 8 seeded junior defeated his Western Ontario opponent Saturday morning before falling to Yale’s Colin Campbell.|link=node|align=left|width=|height=0]
The men’s squad (6-2, 2-2 Ivy) opened the day of competition by blanking Western Ontario Saturday morning, 9-0. The Red, however, was not so fortunate against its Ivy competition later in the afternoon — dropping a tough 5-4 decision to visiting Yale.
The Bulldogs, now a perfect 8-0, relied on clutch performances from the bottom half of its lineup. In positions 7-9, the Red took the matches to five sets but failed to tally the wins.
The squad’s top-4 went 2-2 over the weekend, however, as junior co-captain Chris Sachvie, freshman Alex Domenick, sophomore Will Hartigan and freshman Thomas Spettigue largely dominated their opponents at the No. 1-4 positions, respectively.
Spettigue scored a come-from-behind win against Western Ontario’s Kimesh Chetty. After falling behind, 2-0, the Red player pulled out a crucial third game win, 10-9, and then coasted to victory with 9-1 and 9-2 final two stanzas.
The women (6-5, 2-5) had an even tougher time against the No. 5 Lady Bulldogs — falling 7-2. Freshmen Shivangi Paranjpe and Lauren Sachvie netted the Red’s only two wins, at the No. 3 and No. 6 positions, respectively.
Sachvie, sister to the No.1 seeded men’s player for the Red, came out strong, winning the first game 9-4, but opponent Lexi Van Arkel won the next two before Sachvie battled back, 9-6, 10-8.
Those two points, however, are the first points that Cornell has scored against Yale since the 2001-02 season.
In addition, sophomore Izzy Spyrou represented for the Red in exhibition play. She notched a four-game win at the No. 10 spot against Kaitlin Vinci, 9-6, 9-2, 9-10, 9-4.


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