The Jeffs came into Friday with their "A" game, playing great squash and winning some very tough matches on their way to their first victory of the season over a higher-ranked opponent. Sophomore Stu Landesberg, junior Nick Haslett and senior co-captain Brian Lawrence were the only Jeffs to win in straight sets during the 8-1 victory. Sophomore Auloke Mathur had difficulty in his first game against Midshipman Gavin Morrison, losing 7-9 and barely claiming the second 10-8 before dominating the next two games, 9-2 and 9-4. The rest of the team played competitive matches of four games each in this impressive win.
"The Navy match was our best showing of the year," said Landesberg. "It was the first time that the entire team came out ready to compete and in doing so we showed our potential as a team."
In the adjacent bracket, Williams swept Bowdoin College, cementing another matchup between the archrivals. Unfortunately, the match yielded the same disappointing 8-1 score as their last meeting.
"The Williams loss was certainly disappointing," said senior co-captain Gifford Sommerkamp. "I have never heard of a team losing 10 out of 10 five-game matches to another team over a two-week period."
Williams eventually lost to Brown University on Sunday and ended the weekend ranked 10th in the nation while the Jeffs played for number 11 on Sunday against Hobart College-a team that already served the Jeffs a 5-4 loss this season.
"Our first loss to Hobart was the most disappointing of the season," said Landesberg. "I think that everyone on the team knew going into that match that we were going to take charge, and we did."
Indeed, the Jeffs played with tenacity, winning six tough matches and once again proving themselves capable of rising to the challenge of a higher-ranked team. Sommerkamp and junior Tyler Mixter each eked out victories against Statesmen who dropped them in the last meeting.
The Jeffs ended their season as the 11th-ranked team in the nation. This was an improvement upon last year's showing at the CSA Championships, where the Jeffs lost two of their three games, also in the Hoehn division.
Hopefully, this upward trend will continue on to next year. However, the Jeffs will be forced to compensate for the loss of important senior leadership from Lawrence, Sommerkamp and fellow senior Michael Strong. Promising first-years Michael Rapisarda and Andrew Slutsky, as well as number-two player Mathur, hope to continue the Jeff tradition of success next winter.
While team competition is complete, some Jeffs will play this weekend at the CSA Individual Championships at Dartmouth College.