CAMBRIDGE - The Tufts University men's squash team narrowly missed a berth into the championship match of the Conroy Cup at the College Squash Association Team Championships today as they fell 5-4 to Hobart College in the semi-finals.
The Jumbos, who entered the tournament as the 28th seed in the nation, will instead play #27 Bowdoin for third place in the Conroy Cup on Sunday at 9 a.m. at the Brooks School in North Andover. Tufts dropped to a 14-9 record with Saturday's defeat.
Hobart (9-13), the top seed in the Conroy Cup and #25 nationally, will face #26 Wesleyan for the Conroy Cup title on Sunday at 9 a.m. That match will be played at Harvard University.
In their first meeting since 2013 played at Harvard today, the Jumbos and the Statesmen contested two matches that went five games and three that finished in four games for an overall close match.
The Jumbos won both of the five-game competitions. At #2, freshman Raghav Kumar overcame a 2-1 deficit to win 8-11, 15-13, 9-11, 11-1, 11-6. In the sixth match, Tufts sophomore Aidan Porges was up 2-0 before Hobart's Graham Henderson rallied to tie the score. Porges won it in the fifth with game scores of 11-8, 11-6, 6-11, 5-11, 12-10.
The victorious Statesmen played especially well in the #1 and #3 matches. In the top spot, Josh Oakley was an 11-1, 11-7, 11-5 winner for the Statesmen. Jack Shannon gave up just one more point in the fourth spot where he was an 11-0, 11-5, 11-9 winner for Hobart. The Statesmen also posted three-game wins at #3 with Terrance Rose (11-7, 11-7, 11-7) and in the fifth match where Divine Wing won by 11-7, 11-9, 11-7 scores.
For the Jumbos, junior Sandeep Rishi emerged out of a 1-1 tie to win in four at #7 (14-12, 8-11, 11-4, 11-6). Freshman Amun Sahrawat won a fairly convincing four-game match in the ninth spot 11-7, 11-7, 8-11, 11-7. Hobart's Cristian Trehan and Tufts sophomore Imran Trehan were tied 1-1 in the eighth match before the Statesman won the final two games for the 11-5, 8-11, 12-10, 11-1 victory.
Tufts matched its victory total from last season with their 14th on Friday in the Conroy quarterfinals over Hamilton. They will attempt to top that total tomorrow against Bowdoin.
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