"The field in the Hoehn division was probably as strong as it had ever been," said senior Stuart Landesberg. "All of the teams were fairly evenly matched and we knew going in that it would be exciting."
With number six Gautam Kalani '09 out of action, sophomores Ben Bishop and Jerome Giovanazzo, senior Craig McCready and junior Andrew Slutsky all moved up a notch on the Amherst lineup to face off against Bowdoin College on Friday. With the exception of Bishop, however, the other three Jeffs served up decisive wins for the Amherst scoreboard. The top of the ladder saw senior co-captain Auloke Mather, sophomore Drew Blacker and junior Mark Rapisarda contribute convincing victories. In the number-four position, Landesberg saw his 2-0 lead fall to a 2-2 match before taking the fifth game 9-4. At the fifth spot, senior co-captain Peter Hatfield took a close first match 9-7, and ended up with the first victory in what would prove to be the capstone weekend of his four years.
"Bowdoin came in the match thinking they could upset us, but we beat them handily 8-1," said Hatfield. "Auloke played exceptionally well at the number one spot."
Landesberg noted, "Bowdoin went on to win the rest of its matches and we beat them 8-1-it was a good showing of what the team was capable of."
The Saturday match against Cornell, held at the tournament's secondary location at nearby Choate Rosemary Hall, was the true heartbreaker of the weekend. Until late into the contest, the Jeffs were ahead 4-3, but the combined wins from Rapisarda, Hatfield, Bishop and McCready just fell short of pulling the Jeffs through the semifinal round. Hatfield's, Bishop's and McCready's victories were especially worth mentioning. In number five, Hatfield left everything he had on the court to take his Cornell opponent 3-2 in a drawn-out, closely-fought matched that seemed to last forever. At the number six spot, Bishop also wrestled three of five games from Big Red Mike Gelinas, who had the home court advantage of playing for Choate during his high school career. As for McCready, as teammate Mather noted, although he was playing higher up on the ladder than usual, "he played exceptionally against his Cornell opponent, who is supposedly significantly better than him on paper."
"Cornell is the match we want back," Landesberg said. "We lost close matches at some of the positions we have been strongest at all year. In particular, at number nine, Andrew Slutsky was limited by an ankle injury, and with two other players out of the lineup, we did not have an experienced number 10 to replace him. Had our number nine not gotten injured, we almost certainly would have seen a different outcome against Cornell. But despite that, we went into Bates determined to finish the season off in the right way."
Blacker agreed with the assessment. "Despite a tough loss to a bunch of Cornell jerks, we pulled it together to defeat top-seeded Bates, to get 11th place overall," he said.
The Bates match on Sunday underscored the importance of depth to the Amherst team and the determination that it possessed. At the top spot, Mather faced off against the number 10 player in the nation with confidence and composure.
"He gave his opponent a serious scare by dominating him in the first games," said Rapisarda. "Though he fell hard during the game and finished the match barely able to move, Auloke walked off that court with a smile." And even with the top four matches in the lineup going to the Bobcats, the Jeffs from Hatfield down swept the bottom of the ladder. Even playing up a spot at number nine, Slutsky took three rapid games from his opponent 9-0, 9-1, 9-0.
The CSA tournament was truly a strong finish to a difficult season. The seniors pulled together for one final burst in the last three days of their Amherst squash careers. For his last weekend as an Amherst squash player, Hatfield put in the best performance of his career. Mather spearheaded the Amherst campaign at the tournament, and even though he faced some heartbreaking losses, walked away with a nomination to the Skillman Award. McCready had what co-captain Mather called "a dream run this weekend," consistently notching wins for Amherst even while playing up from his usual spot. Tough losses early on had threatened the Jeffs' morale and momentum, not to mention its national rankings. But at Yale, each individual in the lineup stepped up to fill an increased role for the good of the team. "Auloke, Drew and Mark took far more wins at the top of the lineup than Amherst has ever enjoyed in the last four years," Landesberg said. "During the weekend, we played and won disproportionately many close matches. This is the most balanced lineup Amherst has fielded in my time here."
As for the future, Mather made sure to single out the valuable asset that Rapisarda would prove to the team next year. "He is a hidden gem at the number-three spot and this year was probably his best record in squash at Amherst. He will truly be a great leader next year who will set the right example for his peers," he said. "And on the whole for this season, we had some great wins and close losses, and I'm sure that next year we will be battling for that number nine spot again."