SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. – The No. 28 ranked Haverford men's squash team (8-1) split the day at the Pioneer Valley Invitational on Friday. The Fords dropped a 7-2 decision to No. 31 Wesleyan (2-8), as the Cardinals defended their home courts after Haverford grabbed a win in the series a season ago. Haverford followed that up with a trip to Mount Holyoke for a 6-3 victory over No. 36 Stanford (4-4). The Fords were making their 2019 debut and a return to competitive action for the first time in over a month, competing in the traditional early season meeting of small school squash powers in New England.
#31 Wesleyan 7, #28 Haverford 2
Haverford won at the second flight, with Tate Miller making quick work of Yaha Ladiwala (11-4, 11-4, 11-8). The Fords also grabbed a victory from Fitz Dougherty at the third flight, as the sophomore tallied a win in straight games (11-3, 11-7, 11-7).
Ultimately, the Cardinals were able to come away with the victory, but senior co-captain Ryan Dukarm also had one of the toughest battles of any Haverford player this season. Dukarm dropped the first game to Alex Dreyfus at the sixth flight by an tantalizing final score of 16-14, and fell behind 2-0 after dropping the second 11-7. Dukarm stormed back with 11-8 and 11-6 victories in games three and four, respectively, but Dreyfus was able to edge Dukarm in the fifth game by an extra-points final of 12-10.
Alden Weinberg grabbed the third set from Andrew Doucette at the eight flight, falling in four (11-8, 11-9, 8-11, 11-9).
#28 Haverford 6, #36 Stanford 3
The Fords improved to 3-3 all-time against the Cardinal, posting a second straight victory over the squad from the Bay Area in the nightcap at Mount Holyoke, competing in two states in the span of just a few hours.
Davis Chase was defeated by Yosuef Hindy in four games at the top flight (5-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-9), but Miller swept Matthew Bernstein at the second flight (11-3, 11-9, 11-6). Miller is now 9-0 on the season, registering perfect records at both the second and third flights. Dougherty grabbed a win over Juan Sarmiento at the third flight (11-7, 11-1, 11-3). Dougherty is 8-0 on the season, with a 4-0 record at the second flight and a 4-0 record at the third.
Keil Reedich defeated Chris Peisch in straight games (11-3, 11-2, 11-1) at the fourth position while Yash Singh downed Ethan Brown in a sweep at the fifth flight (11-9, 11-4, 11-9). With his victory, Singh furthered his climb up the Haverford all-time leaderboard for career wins, with 42 career victories. Singh can match Tim Saint '02 for second all-time in program history with two more wins this season. Peter Dudley '18 set the career record last season with 46 wins.
Dukarm outlasted Ian Macfarlane in four games at the sixth flight (11-1, 12-10, 8-11, 11-7) while Alex Liu swept past Henry Friedlander (11-5, 11-4, 11-9).
Dan Wu gave Stanford a win at the eighth spot, downing Weinberg in five games (4-11, 3-11, 11-6, 13-11, 11-4), while Stanford also took home a win at the ninth spot, with Benjamin Esposito sliding past Aaron Witkin (11-3, 11-9, 12-10).
Haverford was slated to face off with Colby to wrap up Pioneer Valley Invitational play tomorrow, but due to forecasted inclement weather that will make travel treacherous the squad will return to campus early in the morning on Saturday.