HARTFORD, CONN. - The 19th-ranked Tufts University Men's Squash team was defeated 8-1 at Trinity College on Wednesday evening. Trinity College is currently ranked No. 3 nationally and the top seed in this weekend's NESCAC Championship.
The Jumbos currently sit at 4-2 in NESCAC play and 5-4 on the season. The Bantams remain undefeated in conference play and improve to a 10-2 overall record.
Sophomore Sam Charlton (pictured) turned in the only match victory for the Jumbos with his four set win over Trinity's Henry Culhane in the ninth position. Charlton started off strong and defeated Culhane 11-6 in the first two sets. After dropping the third set 5-11, he would again post an 11-6 score to finish off the match.
Freshman Oliver Eielson and junior Sanjeev Jeyabalan had strong showings for the Jumbos, but unfortunately came up short. Eielson, in the longest match of the evening, battled Trinity's Advait Adik in the sixth position before falling in five sets with scores of 9-11, 11-9, 12-10, 9-11, 5-11. Jeyabalan was impressive in the No. 2 position with an 11-9 win in the first set, but would eventually drop the next three sets 4-11, 7-11, 8-11. All other matches of the evening would be decided in three sets and in Trinity's favor. Junior Kunal Valia competed in the first position and posted scores of 5-11, 3-11, 6-11. Co-Captains Vivaan Jaikishan and Marco Rodriguez fell in three sets in the third and fourth positions, respectively, and senior Dillon O'Shea was defeated 11-5, 11-5, 11-8 in the fifth slot. Senior Konrad LaDow at No. 7 and sophomore Krish Shah at No. 8 would both push twenty or more points in their three set losses posting scores of 7-11, 8-11, 5-11 and 9-11, 7-11, 6-11, respectively.
Tufts will return to Hartford this weekend for the NESCAC Championship hosted at Trinity College. Tufts will enter the tournament with the #2 seed, a program high for the conference championship, which also earns them a first round bye. The Jumbos first match will be at noon on Saturday, Feb. 5th against the winner of Friday's first round match between #7 seed Middlebury and #10 seed Connecticut College. Host and top seed, Trinity College, will play at 9:00am on Saturday against the winner of #8 seed Hamilton and the #9 seed Wesleyan.
