Men’s squash fell to Rochester Sunday in its last game of the regular season, earning wins at the top and bottom of the ladder.
The No. 5 Yellow Jackets (10-5) trounced the No. 14 Colonials (9-11) 7–2. Wins for the Colonials came from junior Salim Khan at the No. 1 spot and freshman Rohan Bagli at the No. 9 slot.
Bagli secured the Colonials’ first victory of the day, topping junior Siddhant Iyer in four games. Bagli secured an 11–8 victory over Iyer in the first game before falling 11–4 in the second. He came back to win his next two games, beating Iyer 11–6 and 11–9, respectively. The win was Bagli’s third victory at the No. 9 spot and his seventh for the season overall.
Khan’s match also extended beyond three games. After falling to junior Ashley Davies in the first game, Khan came back to win the next two. A win from Davies pushed the match to a fifth game, where Khan recovered from an early deficit to win 18–16.
The win was Khan’s second consecutive five-game victory, coming just a week after his win against No. 8 Drexel’s Filip Krueger in the Mid-Atlantic Squash Conference (MASC) Championships. It is his fifth win at the No. 1 spot and his 12th for the season overall.
The Colonials saw losses up and down the rest of the ladder, but two members of the squad – junior Inaki de Laurrari and senior Geordie Laird – pushed their matches to four games before falling to their opponents.
Playing at the No. 3 spot on the ladder, de Larrauri lost his first game 11–9 to freshman Abdelrahman Lasheen before coming back to secure a 12-10 victory. De Larrauri fell in the next two games. He and Khan were the only two Colonials to extend a game beyond 11 points.
Laird, playing at the No. 8 spot on the ladder, secured an 11-7 win against freshman Emilio Carrillo in his first game before falling to Carillo in the next three. It was Laird’s third consecutive match to extend beyond three games and his fifth for the season overall.
The Colonials had to adjust to changes on the ladder for Sunday’s competition. Freshman Moustafa Montaser, who has held the No. 1 spot on the ladder in nine matches this season, did not appear for the second consecutive match. He was joined on the sidelines by freshman David Valera, who usually holds the No. 6 spot on the ladder. It was the first match Valera had missed this season.
The loss marks the end of the regular season for the Colonials, who have dealt with roster changes since returning to competition in January. Khan’s individual victory led him to the top of the leaderboard for the Colonials, where he is tied for first with senior Jamie Oakley. Khan and Oakley have 12 wins each this season.
De Larrauri and senior Juan Sebastian Laguna are tied for second on the Colonials’ 2019-20 leaderboard, each with 11 individual victories so far this season.
The squad will hope to pick up more wins in two weeks, when they head to Boston for the College Squash Association Team Nationals competition. The squad has captured the Hoehn Cup (B Division) for the last two years and will look to repeat their success this year.
The Colonials are back in action Feb. 28 through March 1 for CSA nationals.
