On Wednesday, the No. 6 men’s squash team heads to Rochester with hopes of beating an opponent it fell to twice last year. Rochester (5-2) is ranked No. 4 in the nation, but senior co-captain Dave Hilton believes that the Red (8-2, 2-1 Ivy League) is capable of adding another win to its season.
“Over the last couple of years we’ve probably gotten the short end of the stick in our matches against them,” Hilton said. “They’re always one of our closest competitors and we’d like to think that we’ll be able to come away with a win.”
The comparable talent between the two teams means that the Red will have to play its best on Wednesday in order to defeat the Yellowjackets.
“Rochester is a really solid team and they have no weak spots in their order,” said senior co-captain Alex Domenick. “If we, if anyone, shows up and plays really crappy then we’ll have a tough time beating them.”
Head coach Mike Devoy mentioned that although the team is dealing with a few injuries, he is still expecting a close match.
“I’ve got another day to get [the injuries] sorted out,” he said. “Hopefully they’re going to sort themselves out as well. I know we’re in for a tough match, but we’re hoping we can field our best team.”
The Red recently lost to Yale, 5-4, a final score identical to Rochester’s loss against the Bulldogs last week.
“The Top-6 teams this year are all pretty even and there’ve been a bunch of 5-4 wins among them,” noted Domenick. “I don’t have any expectations for whether we’re going to win or lose, but I just know it’ll be pretty close.”
Devoy added that consistency is the key to ensuring a win this Wednesday.
“All our guys are equally matched with them,” he said. “It’s just going to come down to, on the day, who puts on the best performance. Their team is basically the same as last year. It’s, again, just going to come down to the matchups on the day.”
The squad also believes that its recent matches against Yale and Trinity will help the team’s mentality this upcoming week.
“Even though we didn’t come away with a win in either of them, I think everyone learned something from the match they played,” Hilton said. “Hopefully we’ll all be able to take what we learned and apply it to our match on Wednesday.”
“I think everyone is on the same page now and I’m really excited to see how this Wednesday goes,” Domenick added.
The senior co-captain will have his own additional motivation for wanting to beat Rochester this Wednesday.
“My brother [Matthew Domenick] is on that team,” he said. “I’d hate to lose to him.”
Original Author: Olivia Wittels