Women
The women's squash team sent three of their best-Caroline Shannon '07, Emily O'Brien '07 and Libby Martin '08 represent the host school.
Shannon's first match was against Bates College's number-two player, and Shannon was ousted to the consolation round, 9-6, 9-4, 9-1. O'Brien also fell to the consolation round, but put up a hard fight. Her match against Denison went a grueling five games, with O'Brien winning the second easily, 9-1, and stealing the fourth, 10-9, before succumbing in the fifth. Martin fared no better in the main draw, playing the number-two ranked player in her bracket and eventual champion. Martin managed to snatch five points in the first game before losing the next two in matching 1-9 sets.
In the consolation round, Martin went up against the number-one player from Middlebury and lost-9-3, 9-1, 9-3-ending her tournament and season. O'Brien played the number-three from Bates College and was unable to prevail, ending her season on a 9-5, 9-2, 9-6 note. Shannon lasted a bit longer, taking on Bowdoin College's number-six player, winning her first match of the tournament-9-3, 9-2, 9-2. Shannon then went up against O'Brien's foe from Bates in a great game: After losing the first two matches, 2-9, 7-9, Shannon made a ridiculous comeback, winning her third, 9-5, and then winning the last two games in grand style, 10-9, 10-8. The emotional victory earned Shannon a matchup with the eventual division champion, the number-five player for Williams College. Shannon again lost her first two games, but came back to win her third 9-3. The fourth game again ended in a tiebreak, but swung the wrong way, 10-8, to end the women's squash season.
Men
First-year Drew Blacker and junior tri-captain Auloke Mathur represented the men's team in the Molloy Division of the tournament.
Blacker, who played on the top court for the Jeffs in his first season, easily swept Williams' Tyler Kyle, 9-2, 9-3, 9-3. After opening up his second-round match by taking the first game from Cornell University's Matthew Greenberg, Blacker faltered, dropping three games in a row, two of which were extremely close.
Mathur drew a tough match in the first round and fell in three games to the University of Pennsylvania's Jacob Himmelrich, an eventual finalist. Mathur managed to take his opponent in the consolation bracket, Adam Slutsky of Dartmouth College, to four games before bowing out of the tournament. Slutsky later advanced to the finals of the consolation bracket.
Despite their lack of individual success, both Blacker and Mathur enjoyed having the tournament at Amherst-and not just for the convenience. "I thought it was a lot of fun to host the tournament," said Blacker. "It was nice to show our facility to the best of the squash world."
Mathur agreed that he enjoyed playing host and added, "I really enjoyed … watching such high quality squash being played at our courts! Some of the best junior squash players from all across the world were representing their colleges in the individual championship."
Indeed, the final match of the Potter Division, which determined the national champion, was an all-international affair, with Harvard's Suchde hailing from Zurich, Switzerland and Princeton's El Halaby coming from Cairo, Egypt.