Brown’s two squash teams lost their varsity status in 2020. But that hasn’t stopped them from excelling.
In February, the men’s/co-ed team won the club national championship for the second year running, and the women’s team finished fifth among club teams in the country. Since the program’s demotion to club status, the two teams have collectively won three national championship tournaments out of the four for which they qualified.
“What I love most about Brown squash is how close everyone is, making squash a team sport,” captain Vedant Gupta ’25 wrote in an email to The Herald. “Securing these titles together is not only rewarding but also validates all the hard work we've put in as a team.”
In 2023, both the men’s/co-ed and women’s teams cruised to crushing victories in the national tournaments.
The men’s/co-ed team replicated that result this year. After powering their way through the opening rounds, notching 9-0 victories against both Boston University and Penn, they faced the University of Chicago in the finals. At last winter’s nationals, the Bears handed the Maroons a 9-0 domination in the opening rounds of the tournament. Winning 8-1 in the finals, Bruno came up one game short of a perfect tournament.
“Things have often been challenging for us as a club team that primarily plays varsity programs during our season,” Gupta wrote. “But credit goes to everyone on the team — and Coach Gaskin — for holding themselves accountable to the same standards as any varsity program and putting the work in every day.”
“There was a chip on our shoulders,” co-captain Leo Shack ’25 added. “Previously we had competed in college nationals with other varsity programs. We wanted to make a statement that we should be in ‘the big leagues’ with other varsity programs.”
Despite not winning the national championship, the women’s team has demonstrated dramatic growth from its initial positioning after being reclassified as a club sport.
Captain Zoya Unni ’25 recalled that, when she was a freshman, the recently demoted team didn’t even have a coach at first.
Building a program of this caliber isn’t easy, Head Coach Arthur Gaskin said. “The main pieces to the puzzle are to enjoy the process of learning (and) improvement, and consistency.”
Looking ahead to this season, Gaskin thinks that maintaining the team’s training “will put ourselves in strong footing.” Fans of the team can look forward to “a lot of home matches this year,” he wrote.
“There should be a lot of intense and gritty matches where we’re able to show off our skills and determination,” Unni added. “I’m very excited for the season to come and really just want to enjoy all of the moments involved since it’s my last year on this team.”
Dennis Carey is a Sports editor who enjoys playing volleyball, listening to and collecting vinyl records and poorly playing the guitar in his spare time.
