The No. 4 Yale men’s squash team (9-2, 3-1 Ivy) hosted two nationally ranked Ivy League rivals this weekend at the Brady Squash Center.
The No. 1 Princeton Tigers (8-0, 4-0 Ivy) overpowered the Elis on Saturday morning with a 6–3 win, but Yale came back against No. 12 Penn with a 6–3 victory the next day.
Despite the strong comeback, the Elis no longer have a chance to win the Ivy title this season.
“Princeton came out strong with two wins off the bat that swung the game in their favor,” Kenneth Chan ’13 said. “We played well as a team. All our players left everything on the court and can be proud of their effort.”
Saturday’s loss against Princeton, the defending national champion, was Yale’s first loss at home and in the Ivy League. The first round of matches went in Princeton’s favor with wins at the No. 9 and No. 3 spots. Ricky Dodd ’13 put up a hard-fought battle at the third spot but fell in three close games in a tense competition against Princeton’s Tyler Osborne.
The second round of matches evened the score for the Elis to 3–3 with wins at the No. 2 and No. 5 spots. Team captain Hywel Robinson ’13 won at No. 2 in four sets and Neil Martin ’14 won at No. 5 in three. Eric Caine ’14 fell at No. 8 to Vivek Dinodia amidst encouragement from the Eli’s roommates and aggressive cheering from the Princeton parents.
“We wanted to win the Ivy League for our seniors,” Caine said. “We really liked our chances given that we had beaten the Tigers in November in the Ivy scrimmages. Credit to [Princeton] — they played extremely well and despite our best efforts came out on top.”
The next day the Bulldogs turned it around with a 6–3 win over the Quakers (4-8, Ivy 1-4). Yale swept the first six spots, and Chan, Martin, Zachary Leman ’16 and Charlie Wyatt ’14 all won in three sets.
Spots seven through nine were taken by the Quakers in long, drawn-out matches. Joey Roberts ’15 fell in five to Tyler Odell at No. 7. At the No. 8 position, Sam Haig ’13 fell in four to Daniel Judd and Sam Shleifer ’15 lost to Justin Ang in four.
Robinson said he was proud of the way his team came back focused on Sunday and prepared to compete again.
The Elis’ next match series will be at home. On Wednesday they will host the No. 18 Brown Bears and on Saturday the No. 8 Dartmouth Big Green.