Fordham Squash traveled to Gambier, Ohio, this past weekend to compete in the annual Denison Round Robin tournament. This year, the Rams faced matchups against the University of Notre Dame, the University of Chicago and the University of Michigan in a two-day event.
The Rams got off to a strong start as they entered the first matchup against Notre Dame up 3-0 due to the Fighting Irish not having enough players.
In the first position, sophomore Nicholas Gilman ultimately lost a hard-fought battle against Mathias Mazzocco. Going across five games, Gilman hung on from being swept in three by securing wins in games three and four before ultimately losing in the final match (11-9, 12-10, 4-11, 7-11, 11-7).
Slots two through six for the Rams saw strong victories as junior Bennett Van Liew secured his second position win over Peter Grissom, and senior Henry Frawley won a third slot three-game set over Sean Mirza.
Junior Sofia Arseniev, in fourth position, secured a victory against Notre Dame’s Brenden Fahey, 12-10, 11-7 and 11-2. Finally, sophomore Crispin McCarthy and senior Nicholas Choo took home wins in fifth and sixth position in three games each.
Fordham locked down the 8-1 victory, making it the seventh time they have done so this year.
However, the Rams’ luck seemingly ran dry against Chicago as their next opponent. Instead of going on a win stretch, the Rams picked up wins where they could, starting with Van Liew in the two spot.
Van Liew entered the third match down two games, battling back-to-back wins in five games, 7-11, 11-6, 10-12, 11-5 and 11-7. Frawley in the third slot won his first game, then dropped the following two. He ultimately battled for five games, winning the last two, 11-9 and 11-8.
For the bottom half of the roster, the Rams could not find success as fourth, fifth, seventh and ninth positions all lost in either four or five games, ultimately dropping the event against Chicago, 2-7.
Seeking to end their weekend on a high note, Fordham had one final test on Sunday against Michigan.
The odd-numbered slots did incredibly well to start off the match as Gilman won his first position matchups in four games against Anourg Shah, 7-11, 11-8, 11-3 and 11-7.
Frawley, in third position, won his set in four games against Gaurav Shekhawat, only dropping one game.
Fifth position was highlighted by the efforts of freshman Peter Vorbach who won his match in four games against Jesse Scheri.
Seventh and ninth positions, held down by sophomore Gray Kearns and McCarthy, respectively, finished things off for the Rams quickly. Both Rams took down their opponents in three-game sweeps.
The even-numbered slots also saw success, with resounding efforts from sophomore Jack Stanley, junior Robert Cruikshank and Arseniev across the fourth, sixth and eighth slots, respectively.
Fordham secured the win against Michigan with a total of 8-1.
The Rams finished their weekend with a final win total of two, landing them at 18-7 on the season. Now, they have a small break before their next event, the CSA Team Championship in two weeks in Philadelphia.
