CANTON, N.Y. - The Haverford College men's squash team (5-9), seeded third in the Liberty League, split a pair of sweeps on Saturday at the Liberty League Championships. The No. 29 Fords eased past No. 33 Vassar in first-round action before falling to No. 23 ranked tournament host St. Lawrence in the Liberty League Semifinals.
#29 Haverford 9, #33 Vassar 0
Against the Brewers, The Fords took a commanding 3-0 lead early, as Garret Fantini defeated Daniel Smith 11-4, 11-4, 11-9 in flight eight, Qianzhi Zhao took down Gabriel Lugo 11-3, 11-2, 11-5, in the sixth flight, and Aaryaman Jaising trounced Jarid Haslinger 11-4, 12-10, 11-2, in flight number two.
Continuing the Fords' winning ways down the ladder, Arvin Krishnan defeated Joseph Donato 11-3, 11-6, 11-9, in flight nine, while Francis Betkowski clinched the Haverford victory in the seventh flight with a sweeping win over Patrick Looby 11-4, 12-10, 11-8.
Tarun Sargunar vanquished Razaan Lalji 11-5, 11-4, 11-1, in the fifth flight to capture the Scarlet and Black's sixth point, while Henry Jiang swept Luke Chen 11-6, 11-7, 11-5, to claim the fourth flight battle.
In the third flight, Kai Schinaman toppled Kyle Benson 11-5, 11-8, 11-6, while Noah Tunis took victory in the top flight, dispelling Konstantinos Georgallides 11-6, 11-6, 11-5, to cap off the Haverford victory.
#23 St. Lawrence 9, #29 Haverford 0
No. 29 Haverford battled hard but ultimately fell to the No. 23 Saints, 9-0, in the Liberty League semifinals later in the day on Saturday. Despite the sweep, the Fordshad several competitive moments against the higher-ranked Saints (7-5), particularly in the second and ninth flights.
At No. 2, Aaryaman Jaising forced extra points in the second game before ultimately falling to Patrick Walford in four sets, 11-9, 12-14, 11-4, 11-6. At the ninth flight, Arvin Krishnan fought back from a two-game deficit to force a decisive fifth game against Trey Denman but came up just short in an 11-4, 11-6, 8-11, 9-11, 11-9 battle.
Tarun Sargunar also put together a strong effort at No. 5 in his return to the lineup, narrowly dropping the opening game 12-10 before falling 11-5, 11-9 to Miguel Posada Villa. Meanwhile, Harry Robson edged Arvin Krishnan in a back-and-forth match at No. 6, taking the final game 13-11.
Haverford will now return to action on Sunday in the Liberty League Third Place match against No. 30 Denison. The matchup is slated to begin at 9 a.m. on the Robie Squash Courts in Canton, N.Y. as the Liberty League Championships wrap up.