HARTFORD, CT (February 24, 2023) -- The No. 15 Tufts University men's squash team battled in the opening match of the 2023 College Squash Association (CSA) Championships, but eventually fell to No. 10 Dartmouth College 6-3 in action at Trinity College.
With the loss, Tufts (9-8) moves into the consolation bracket of the Hoehn Cup, where it will battle No. 11 Chatham University Saturday at 9 a.m.
The Jumbos fell behind early 2-0, but rallied to pull to within one at 2-1 thanks to a furious comeback at No. 9 by
Rohan Valia. Down a pair of games to Auggie Bhavsar, Valia took the third game 11-9 and then evened the match with an 11-4 win in the fourth. The momentum would continue in the fifth game, as Valia topped Bhavsar 11-6 to trim the Big Green's lead to a one. The win moved Valia to 8-3 at the No. 9 position in 2022-23.
Dartmouth (7-8) had taken a 2-0 edge after wins at No. 3 and No. 6, as Christian Shah knocked off
Kerwin Teh at No. 3 with scores of 11-7, 8-11, 11-3 and 11-5 while
Oliver Eielson fell to Lucan White in straight sets at No. 6.
In the second wave, Dartmouth would push its lead to 4-2 as it once again took two of the three matches to double its lead. Dartmouth edged ahead 3-1 after a win at No. 5, as Quintin Campbell bested
Sanjeev Jeyabalan 11-5, 7-11, 11-6 and 11-2. At No. 1,
Harry Charlton and Jack Bell played a very competitive match that went the way of the Big Green, as Bell earned a 9-11, 11-7, 14-12 and 11-4 win to push Dartmouth to within one win of advancing.
That win would have to wait though, as Tufts earned its second win on the same court thanks to a
Jared Chin four-game victory over Felix Feldman with scores of 11-9, 11-9, 7-11 and 11-9. Needing to sweep the third and final wave for the victory, Tufts got the start it wanted thanks to a win at No. 4 by sophomore
Youssef Ezzo, who topped Chris Zachary 11-9, 5-11, 11-8 and 11-6 to get to 9-6 overall on the season. The hopes though of completing the comeback would come to an end though at No. 8, as
Vivaan Jaikishan played a strong match for Tufts but fell to Aryan Khandelwal 11-6, 11-8, 6-11 and 11-9.
The final match to end on the afternoon was at No. 2, and it might have been the most highly contested of the day.
Kunal Valia took a two-game lead for the Jumbos with 11-4 and 11-8 wins, but Mac Aube tallied to take a five-game victory after posting wins of 11-5, 11-7 and 11-8 in the last three games.
In other Hoehn Cup action, Williams College knocked off Chatham University 5-4 to stay in the main dray. On the other side of the bracket, No. 9 ranked Columbia University bested Franklin & Marshall College 9-0 while Western Ontario was leading the University of Rochester 2-1 in the other quarterfinal.
--JUMBOS--
