The Fordham squash team bounced back this past weekend with a successful romp against New York University and Dartmouth’s club team. Taking a sole loss to Bucknell University, it was a huge welcome home for the Rams after being on the road since Dec. 3. 

In their opening match of the weekend, the Rams squared off against NYU, and while junior Henry Frowley dropped his opening match in the one slot, the Rams swept the second through eighth slot with decisive wins from sophomores Bennett Van Liew, Sofia Arseniev, Robert Cruikshank and Aarav Jhunjhunwala, junior Nicholas Choo and freshman Jack Stanley. 

Senior Caleb Schumacher won his match in the seventh position in four sets (11-3, 9-11, 11-5, 11-7) while sophomore Edwin Hess suffered a hard-fought loss to NYU’s Philip Tinker in four sets. The Rams were able to lock down a 7-2 victory, a massive change of pace from the previous weekend.

The Rams went on to drop the next match against Bucknell, 6-3. The Rams’ victories came from the two, five and seven slots.

In the two spot, Van Liew defeated Andre Giglio in a competitive four-game set, dropping the first match before coming back to sweep the next three (4-11, 11-4, 11-8, 11-8). Meanwhile, Cruikshank took on Harrison Sotir in the five spot, also having to battle for his three victories (13-11, 11-4, 10-12, 11-5). Lastly, Schumacher outlasted Cameron Hill (11-5, 11-6, 5-11, 12-10), mirroring Cruikshank in dropping the third game and bouncing back for the fourth game.

The rest of the Rams fell just short of their matches with other close contests coming in the four spot, courtesy of Arseniev, taking her second match and falling short in the rest.

Things continued to look up for the Rams on Sunday as they faced off against the Dartmouth club squash team for a double-header. Fordham had an immediate leg up on Dartmouth as they only had seven players to the Rams’ nine, securing them a 2-0 start from the go.

Starting off strong in the one spot, Frawley locked down both of his matches, winning the first one, 11-4, 11-3, 11-4 and the second, 11-9, 11-3, 11-7 — a clean sweep. 

Van Liew had a tough battle for the two slot, with him taking a 11-5, 11-9, 9-11, 11-6 victory in match one and 7-11, 11-6, 11-5, 11-3 in match two. 

Stanley, Arseniev, Choo, Schumacher and Hess all had two wins over their competitors, closing out the afternoon for the Rams.

In what was a strong home victory for the Rams, they will be back at home once again on Saturday, Feb. 11, when the team hosts Boston University at 2 p.m. and Drexel University’s club team at 6 p.m.