The men’s squash team faces three opponents this weekend in its first home matches of the 2011-12 season. Cornell (2-0) hosts Western Ontario, Columbia and St. Lawrence at the Belkin Squash Courts, beginning on Friday at 5:30 p.m.
The players agree that the team’s first match will probably be the weekend’s toughest, but the men are confident they will secure three wins at home.
“[Western Ontario is] definitely the best team of the weekend, but if everyone is playing as they have as of late, we don’t see ourselves really running into many problems,” said senior co-captain Dave Hilton.
“I expect that we should win pretty easily [against Columbia],” added senior co-captain Alex Domenick. “St. Lawrence has kind of improved this year, but I don’t think we should have too much trouble with them, either.”
Playing three matches in one weekend is no easy feat, but head coach Mark Devoy believes the men are up for the challenge.
“We’re just looking to see some consistency and a good finish,” he said. “People who are winning should be winning … and [we are looking to see] that we don’t get any hiccups on the weekend.”
The Red has a break between its two matches on Saturday, which Devoy believes will provide the men with a distinct edge over the competition.
“We play Columbia first and then play St. Lawrence later on in the afternoon, so we actually get the rest,” he said. “St. Lawrence will play Columbia right before us, so that should give us an advantage as well.”
The women’s team is also gearing up for two matches this weekend. The Red (3-1) makes its home-court debut on Saturday against Columbia and St. Lawrence (1-1). Head coach Julee Devoy does not expect either team to pose too much of a challenge for the squad, which has already defeated Columbia once this year.
“Nothing has changed,” Devoy said, referencing the Red’s scrimmage against Columbia on Nov. 12th. “If anything, we’ve had a few more matches under our belt. I’m expecting the girls to get out there and show [Columbia] that we can definitely still beat them, 9-0, quite comfortably.”
Senior co-captain Lauren Sachvie reiterated her coach’s words.
“[We are] planning on going out there and doing the same thing that we did earlier this season,” she said.
Against St. Lawrence, Devoy will remove her Top-5 women from the lineup to give the reserves on the squad an opportunity to play in a competitive match.
“[Substitutions] give the girls who are working just as hard as the Top-10 a chance to dress and play for the Red, and to get something back for everything they put in,” Devoy said.
The head coach added that if the women “get out there and play their game,” the Red has nothing to fear this weekend.
“[We] are stronger, so [we] will win — it’s that simple in squash,” she said. “If you dominate the court, then it’s very unlikely that you would suffer a loss, and that’s sort of the state of affairs at the moment when you look at the two teams’ lineups.”
Original Author: Olivia Wittels