BELMONT - In tightly-contested action at the Belmont Hill School late Saturday afternoon, the #29 ranked Hamilton College Continentals nipped the #28 Tufts Jumbos 5-4 in a NESCAC men's squash match.
The match was the first home event of the season for the Jumbos, who fell to 0-2 with the loss. Hamilton was playing in its season opener. Among the nine matches, the Continentals won two five-game affairs and also took two out of three games that went to four. Tufts was 3-1 in matches that were swept in three games.
The second and fifth matches provided the most drama. At #2, Hamilton's Callum Sondhi rallied from down one to defeat Jumbo junior Alan Litman in five 11-9, 7-11, 10-12, 11-8, 11-5. The fifth match went back-and-forth with Tufts freshman Salik Awan prevailing in the fifth game (12-10, 6-11, 11-5, 13-15, 11-4).
The fourth match was tied at 1-1 before Hamilton's Tristan Chaix took 11-6 and 12-10 wins to defeat Connor Wind from Tufts. Continental Colin O'Dowd and Jumbo Aidan Porges both surged to 2-0 leads before giving up a game and winning in four at #1 and #6, respectively.
Among the three-game contests, #8 had the most action where Hamilton's Will Jordan won 11-7, 12-10, 11-5 over Tufts freshman Josh Lee. Tufts junior co-captain Brett Raskopf had the easiest win at #3 where he lost just 12 points.
The Jumbos return to their home away from home at Belmont Hill on Sunday to host Bard (2 p.m.) and Boston College (6 p.m.). Hamillton plays a NESCAC match at Williams on Sunday.
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