Together, the men’s and women’s squash teams served up a 7-0 weekend at the Cornell Round Robin, each squad staying undefeated on the Red’s home courts. On Friday, the men earned a 6-3 win over the University of Western Ontario, the team’s toughest match of the weekend. The next day, the Red lost only one match to Williams before defeating its opponent, 8-1, and then went on to consecutive 9-0 victories over Hamilton and Stanford. Senior co-captain Nick Sachvie was 4-0 this weekend at the No. 1 spot, but he was not the only member of the Red to remain undefeated during the tournament. “Most people were undefeated on the weekend except for a couple, so everyone played pretty well,” said Sachvie. “There were a couple of matches that stood out for us — one of our freshmen [Graham Dietz] against Western. We already sealed the deal with five wins, but he was down 2-0 in games and came back and won in the fifth to make it 5-3 for us.” While the Red certainly had a strong weekend, Sachvie noted that the squad still has some work to do as the season progresses. “All of our hard matches are coming up next semester, so I’m sure the team can get better prepared for those and train a little harder in the off-season,” he said. Sachvie added that in terms of confidence, the Cornell Round Robin was “definitely a good start for the season, especially the guys who haven’t played that much on the team in the past and the freshmen. It’s good to get some wins under their belt.” The women were equally as successful as the men this past weekend, earning 9-0 wins over Williams and Hamilton on Saturday before closing out a tight, 5-4, win over rival Stanford on Sunday. Sophomore No. 1 Danielle Letourneau defeated Stanford’s Pamela Chua to even the score of the match at four all; the deciding point then fell to freshman Abbey Foster at the No. 3 spot. Foster was able to withstand the pressure, earning an, 11-7, 11-4, 11-1, decision over Stanford senior Julie Koenig to win the match for the Red. Though there were some nerves in her first official college match, Foster’s plan to remain level-headed and focused played a role in her success this weekend. “I’m glad that it’s over — it was a bit nerve wracking,” she said. “[My strategies were] basically to stay calm and play good squash, which for me means to hit good length shots, make sure all my shots are going where I want them to be.” Though there were not many negatives to take away from her play in the round robin, Foster mentioned that the three matches showed her how significant the warm-up is in relation to performing well in college squash. “What I took away from the weekend is that the warm-up is a really important part of getting ready for my matches — I guess everyone’s matches,” Foster said. “When you get a good warm-up in, you get focused, and you play a lot better. Both the men and women have a weekend off before they head down to New York City on December 2nd to open the Ivy League season against Columbia.
Original Author: Olivia Wittels