"[Our placement] was quite unexpected, although we knew the matches would be tough because our top player, Mike Strong, sprained his ankle two days before the tournament," said John Brody '02. "Although barely able to walk, he tried to play against Bowdoin in the first match and lost, then sat out the next two matches."
"I think the rest of the team was affected mentally by the change in our lineup, because most of us were up and down over the weekend," he added.
The Jeffs played in the tournament's Hoehn Division for teams ranked ninth through 16th. The Jeffs narrowly lost their first match with the Bowdoin College Polar Bears by a score of 5-4. Piercarlo Valdesolo '03, John Holodnak '03, David Bauer '03 and Asad Haque '04 all won their matches against their Bowdoin opponents.
"We lost to Bowdoin 5-4 in the first match, with a couple of players playing well, but most of us playing pretty poorly," said Brody.
The loss set up a loser's bracket match with Hobart College on Saturday, a team the Jeffs thought they would defeat easily. However, much like on Friday, the Jeffs would come out with a narrow 5-4 loss.
Valdesolo, Gifford Sommerkamp '05, Holodnak and Bauer were the key players against Hobart, securing wins in all of their matches.
On the final day the Jeffs lost 7-2 to Bates College with only Brody and Bauer scoring wins. Surprisingly, Bates was a team they beat earlier in the season, 6-3.
"I think this match showed how much shifting everybody in the lineup by one spot changes a team, as well as what a psychological game squash is," said Brody. "After losing those first two matches by extremely close scores, I think we were all a little mentally drained."
Bauer was a shining light over the weekend, winning all three of his matches.
With the end of the NISRA Tournament, Amherst's season has almost come to an end. Though the Jeffs have shown sparks of brilliance this season, that brilliance was not sustained on a weekly basis.
"I think the end of this season showed us what we need to work on for next year. Although I think we improved as a team over last year, demonstrated by some key performances against Bates, Franklin and Marshall, and Penn during the regular season, we didn't have the consistency and intensity to carry our success through to the end of the season," said Brody. "With one or two recruits and a lot of focus next year, I think this can be an excellent squash team."
The Jeffs will attempt to find the silver lining to their season when they head to Princeton University on March 1-3 for their last tournament of the season, the NISRA Individual Championships.