A tough Ivy schedule has left both the men’s and women’s squash teams reeling. Neither squad has notched a conference win to date, dropping most matches by large margins, most recently to Dartmouth and Harvard. In their seven conference matches, both teams have won just four games, for an individual winning rate of about 6 percent.
But the stats only paint part of the picture. According to the College Squash Association, the men’s team (5-8, 0-7 Ivy) is the sixteenth best in the country and the women’s team (5-8, 0-7) the eleventh best. The rest of the teams in the Ivy League are also nationally ranked, mostly in the top ten. The Ancient Eight has historically dominated national rankings, with Harvard, Princeton and Yale capturing the majority of national championships for both men and women.
“It can be tough, particularly within the Ivy League, since all these schools have rich histories of having really good teams,” said Jack Blasberg ’16, captain and a Herald sports columnist. While teams like Princeton won their first championship in 1942, Brown’s program is relatively new.
The women’s squad is coming off of two losses last week, suffering a 9-0 sweep against Harvard (10-1, 6-1) Thursday and dropping a 6-3 decision to Dartmouth (6-7, 1-6) Friday. Many players had tough matches against their Crimson rivals. Isabel Scherl ’17, Skylar Murphy ’16 and Alexandra White ’15 each won at least one set, but no player was able to capture a win over the elite players on No. 2 Harvard.
In Hanover, Murphy, Quincy Beck ’18, Mina Shakarshy ’15 and Katherine Pisani ’18 succeeded in capturing individual matches. The Big Green’s defeat of Bruno was its first Ivy win of the season.
This weekend, the women will compete at the Kurtz Cup, the national team championships for squash. Their first match will pit them against Franklin and Marshall (men 13-6 and women 9-7), which is ranked just below Bruno. The teams have not yet met this season, which promises an exciting and potentially tight matchup.
Both Bruno teams will be competing in the bracket of teams ranked from nine to 16, where their experience playing top-tier teams will pay off.
“We’ll see some teams with very good players at the top of their line up,” Blasberg said. “But we can shine and play well with our whole lineup.”
The men’s squad most recently fell to Dartmouth (6-7, 2-5) and Harvard (8-3, 7-0), dropping 9-0 decisions to both schools. The Crimson men were hard to beat for the Bears, who fell in three games in all but one contest. Bruno showed more fight against Dartmouth, mounting more competitive campaigns in a few individual matches but still failing to pick up a win.
“We’ve played some really good teams and represented ourselves well,” Blasberg said. “Right now we’re really looking forward to going down to Hartford (for Nationals) and doing some damage.”
The men have a week off before their national team championships, where they will undoubtedly continue to face stiff competition. They will spend the next week resting nagging injuries and preparing for a demanding match-per-day schedule.
“Whatever happens is going to happen,” Blasberg said. “We can only go out there and play as best we can. … If we do that, we’ll get a lot of good results.”
