Although they lost, the Jeffs put up a good fight. "It was a close match against Franklin and Marshall," said Piercarlo Valdesolo '03, "and they were ranked better than us." Contributors to Amherst's score included senior Co-captain Addison West, David Bauer '03, John Brody '02 and freshman Asad Haque.
After this game, the National Intercollegiate Squash Racquets Association ranked Franklin and Marshall 13th, while Amherst was ranked 15th, with a record of 4-5.
The loss to Trinity on Jan. 25 was important. Trinity swept all nine matches 3-0, extending their winning streak to 43 matches.
The Bantams are comprised of an internationally diverse group, including three of the top five collegiate players in the nation. Among them are senior All-American Akhil Behl, Jonathan Smith, Lefika Ragontse, 16th-ranked senior Loua Coutzee and 18th-ranked junior Rohan Bhappu.
On Jan. 23, men's squash played against visiting Colby and Brown. The Jeffs won the opening game against Colby's White Mules 7-2, but failed to finish strong when they lost to the Brown Bears 8-1.
Amherst almost shut out Colby, as West and Valdesolo won games 3-0 and Bauer, John Holodnak '03 and Haque had 3-1 victories. Roger Boulay '03 and Brody also won their matches. In the loss to Brown, the only Amherst win was made by Valdesolo against Rishal Sawhney 3-0.
Similarly, the Jeffs split a doubleheader on, Jan. 20. They swept the University of Rochester 9-0, but fell 9-0 to the host school, the University of Pennsylvania.
In a tough match, Amherst's West played against Penn's number one seed Peter Withstandley in a marathon five-game competition. Despite his efforts he eventually lost 15-12 in the last game.
In their first game during Interterm held on Jan. 17, visiting Amherst fell to Ivy League rival Dartmouth College 8-1. The first and only match of the day was won by West over Andre Prokipiw. The rest of the games were swept by the host Big Green.
On Dec. 7, Amherst beat visiting Tufts University with an impressive score of 7-2. The top six players swept the evening's first six matches for the Amherst squad. The pair of wins made by Tufts came in the seventh and ninth seeded matches. Tuft's Nathan Anderson beat Amherst's Sujay Desai '01 with a score of 3-2, while Jumbo Jordan Nolasinski defeated his Jeff opponent, Brody eking out a score of 3-1.
The men's team has learned from their losses. "We need to play harder and run around more and win every ball," said Valdesolo.
Amherst's next game, which they expect to win, is tomorrow at 7 p.m. against MIT, at neutral Harvard University.