CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Haverford men's squash team split a pair of matches at the MIT Round Robin on Saturday, besting Northeastern 9-0 in a matinee contest before falling 7-2 to the hosts, No. 21 MIT, in the nightcap. Haverford now sits at 5-4 on the season following the pair of matches.
#30 Haverford 9, Northeastern 0
The Fords swept past the Huskies with Zach Cole finishing a sweep of Brian Fogerty to give Haverford its first win of the contest in the sixth position. Freshman Cyrus Bahadori extended his winning streak to five with a clean sweep of Jorge Lastra in the ninth position and Aaron Horwitz swept past Will Greaves-Tunnell in the third spot on the ladder.
Shilin Jog bested Francisco Calderon in straight games at the 8th spot before Alex Liu clinched the victory for the Fords with a four-set win over Kalil Menezes, rattling off 13-11 and 11-6 wins after dropping the second game 12-10.
Peter Dudley swept Viraj Shah at the second spot ahead of sweeps from Ryan Dukarm and Yash Singh in the fourth and seventh positions on the ladder, respectively. Tate Miller was battled by Evan Jacobson at the top of the ladder, but prevailed after dropping the first game.
#21 MIT 7, #30 Haverford 2
In the nightcap against the host Engineers, Haverford got standout performances from Bahadori, who again took a win against Mikaeel Yunus in the ninth spot on the ladder, sweeping away his competition to extend his individual win streak to six matches. Dukarm also took a win over Andrew Lu, securing a sweep in the seventh position on the ladder.
At the top of the ladder, Miller was locked in an epic match with Justin Restivo, an opponent who was playing an unconventional style of squash. Miller was able to stay poised and focused, battling Restivo to a 11-9 win in the first game before dropping the second game 11-7. The third game was a seesaw affair that saw Restivo outlast Miller with a 16-14 win. In the fourth, Miller was forced to retire due to a leg cramp that left him unable to continue.
In the second position, Peter Dudley also had an impressive showdown with Tyler Finkelstein, as both players were playing to the left wall, trying to force errors out of their opponent's backhand side. Dudley was able to take a patient approach with Finkelstein, forcing a fourth game with an 11-9 win after narrow losses in the first two games. Dudley eventually was defeated, but was successful in being able to disarm the strategy from the Engineer player.
The Fords will next wrap up MIT Round Robin play with a 9:00 a.m. start time against Northwestern on Sunday in Cambridge before returning home for matches with Swarthmore and No. 32 Vassar next Saturday.