Yale Athletics

This weekend, Yale’s men and women’s squash teams hosted unofficial Ivy scrimmages at home in the Brady Squash Center to kick off season play.

All Ancient Eight schools except Brown University traveled to New Haven to compete on Saturday and Sunday. 

The men’s team beat Columbia University on Saturday but fell to Harvard University that afternoon. On Sunday, the team fell to Princeton University.

On Saturday, the women’s team beat the University of Pennsylvania but lost to Harvard, rallying on Sunday to beat Cornell University. 

“Overall, the team can come away from the weekend with many positives,” Max Forster ’25 said. “Falling just short to Harvard and Princeton without our full lineup shows we are right there with the top teams and it only fuels us to train harder to get us ready for official matches this season.”

Men’s players Siow Yee Xian ’24, Maxwell Orr ’24 and Tad Carney ’26 played in the top three spots this weekend for the Bulldogs. 

As a team, the men performed well on Saturday against Columbia. Players one through nine on the ladder didn’t lose a single match and beat Columbia 9–0. On Saturday afternoon, the men’s team competed against Harvard. While Harvard ultimately took the bout 7–2, the overall score does not reveal how close the individual matches were as two of the Bulldogs lost with a narrow margin of 3–2. 

Jed Burde ’24 and Nikhil Ismail ’24 did not play for the Bulldogs on Saturday due to injury and sickness respectively. Taylor Clayton ’25 was out on Sunday due to injury as well. The team was also missing their captain Eric Kim ’23, who is not enrolled this semester but will begin playing for the Blue and White next semester. 

On Sunday, the men’s team lost to Princeton 7-2 without their full roster. 

“It was great to be back in a competitive environment and have the season start off as planned,” Maxwell Orr ’24 said. “This is my third year at Yale but only my first normal Ivy Scrimmages, so it was really nice to have fans in attendance and be back in a setting I have missed for a couple years.”

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, matches have been played in limited crowd capacities. Players have been allowed two invitations to watch matches. It is the first year since the 2019-2020 athletic season that there is not limited capacity at matches. 

Women’s players Sneha Sivakumar ’24, Christy Lau ’25 and Elisabeth Ross ’24 played the top three spots for the Bulldogs this weekend. 

On Saturday morning, the women competed fiercely and beat UPenn 7–2. In the afternoon, the women lost to Harvard 7–2. On Sunday, the women fought hard and beat Cornell 7–2. 

“We’re looking to focus on mental preparation this week,” women’s captain Brianna Jefferson ’23 said. “[Ivy] Scrimmages was a great warmup, but UVA will be a great test as our first official match of the season”

The women missed Gigi Yeung ’24 for the afternoon on Saturday and the matches on Sunday. 

Brown does not have a varsity squash team after their men’s and women’s squads were demoted to club sports in 2020.

Looking ahead, the Bulldogs will travel to Charlottesville to compete against the University of Virginia at the McArthur Squash Center. The matches against UVA will be the first official matches of the 2022-23 season for the Bulldogs.