CAMBRIDGE – The Tufts University men's squash team won two of the top three matches, but Williams College earned a 6-3 victory overall when the teams met in a NESCAC match at Harvard on Sunday.
Tufts, ranked 26th nationally, dropped to 3-5 with the loss. The #17 Ephs won their second in a row to improve to 10-5.
Freshman Kunal Valia won the #1 contest for the Jumbos over Williams' Jacob Bassil in three competitive games 11-9, 11-8, 11-7. Similarly at #3, Jumbo freshman Sanjeev Jeyabalan took three tight sets over Eph Udai Pal 12-10, 11-6, 13-11.
The other Tufts victory came in the seventh match where freshman Vivaan Jaikishan won convincingly 11-5, 11-0, 11-7.
Williams posted two of their six victories with four-game results in the eighth and ninth matches. Jumbo sophomore Will Dewire won the first set at #9 before Williams' Charles Merrill came back for a 9-11, 11-7, 11-4, 12-10 victory. In the eighth position Eph David Pincus defeated Jumbo junior co-captain Salik Awan 11-6, 11-4, 8-11, 11-8.
The most competitive three-game match of the day went to Williams' Carl Shuck in the fifth spot where he defeated Tufts sophomore Konrad LaDow 11-9, 11-9, 12-10.
The Jumbos will travel to Amherst on Friday before opening the new Tufts Squash Center with a match against Connecticut College next Saturday.
