MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – The Tufts University men's squash team was knocked out of the winner's bracket at the 2019 New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Championships by host Middlebury College 9-0 in the quarterfinals on Saturday.
The Jumbos (6-9) had advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2010 with a 9-0 opening-round victory against Wesleyan on Friday. The Jumbos, ranked 24th nationally, were blanked by a #17 Middlebury team that improved to an 11-4 record.
The Panthers won six of the nine matches in straight games, two in four games and one in five. In the five-game match, Tufts' Will Dewire led 11-9, 11-8 before Middlebury's Teddy Best came back to win the #5 match with consecutive 11-4, 11-6, 11-4 wins.
The top match between Tufts' Raghav Kumar and Middlebury's Justin Ghaeli went four games with Kumar winning the first 12-10. Ghaeli ran off 11-8, 11-9, 11-2 wins to prevail. Also going four games was the ninth match where Thomas Wolpow from Middlebury broke a 1-1 tie with 11-3 and 11-7 victories against Tufts' Aidan Porges.
The closest three-game match was between Connor Wind from Tufts and Wiatt Hinton from Middlebury with 11-6, 11-6, 15-13 scores. Three Jumbos scored more than 20 points in their three-game losses in total.
Jacob Ellen from Middlebury had the quickest victory with an 11-2, 11-2, 11-4 scoring line at #2.
Second-seed Middlebury advances to the NESCAC Semifinals against third-seed Williams College on Saturday at 4:45 pm. Seventh-seed Tufts faces sixth-seed Bowdoin in a consolation match on Saturday at 4:45.
