After dropping all three matches to start its season at the Vassar Invitational, it looked like Fordham Squash may face that same fate with four matches at the Navy Round Robin. However, a shorthanded Rams squad avenged its three former losses on the weekend and conjured up a win against Boston University for its first of the season.

 Fordham’s “season” began back on Oct. 30 with the exhibition Alumni Match in the Bronx. It was an opportunity for former squash players to unite and celebrate the legacy of Fordham Hall of Famer Robert Hawthorn, who the Lombardi Courts are named after. Hawthorn graduated from Fordham in 1953 and began coaching the program just three years later.

The squash program was in a much different place at the time, battling a commute to the New York Athletic Club, but Hawthorn showed his dedication to it, becoming the school’s first three-time winner of the Iron Major Award.

It has paid off as well, with the Fordham program shining in recent seasons behind two consecutive Chaffee Cup championships and three consecutive twenty win campaigns. That, of course, changed in 2020, as the Rams did not take the court at all during that year. Instead, their first action came two weekends ago at the Vassar Round Robin in Poughkeepsie.

As expected, some rust showed, with Fordham dropping all three of its matches to Vassar College, Northeastern University and Georgetown University. Fordham notched three points in the first match, with sophomores Nicholas Choo and Henry Frawley each picking up their first win in a Fordham uniform and Justin George picking up the third. They then proceeded to fall by the same scoreline to Northeastern, with wins from senior Winthrop Reed, junior Caleb Schumacher and a second from Frawley. Senior Dylan Panichello earned the lone point against Georgetown to round out the weekend.

The early season struggles continued at the Navy Round Robin. The Rams were blanked by their first two opponents, The Naval Academy and Haverford College, 9–0 before Schumacher won a point back against Denison University.

However, none of those results mattered against Boston University, as Fordham kept its spirits high and earned a 5–3 victory over the Terriers. Fordham received an early lead courtesy of a default win and proceeded to win four matches from there, coming from familiar sources in Schumacher as well as Frawley (his third point of the season), George and Panichello.

Despite the 1–6 record at the moment, Fordham has much to look proudly upon in the early portion of its season. Not only have they become the final university team to resume play following the pandemic, but they picked up their first win in shorthanded fashion as well. They will now have a chance to continue that momentum against the University of California and Washington University in St. Louis this weekend in the Bronx as. While it may take some time, they look to return to championship form from two seasons ago.