HARTFORD, Conn. — The men's squash team will attempt to win the fourth Hoehn Cup in program history when it competes at the College Squash Association's 'B' Division national championship this weekend at Trinity.
The Hoehn Cup features the nation's ninth- through 16th-ranked teams, and Cornell (6-12) enters the weekend ranked seventh in the bracket and 15th overall in the country. That lands the Big Red a quarterfinal match against No. 10 George Washington (14-6) at 10 a.m. Friday.
The Big Red finished fourth in the Hoehn Cup last season and 12th in the country in the CSA's final rankings. It was a two-spot improvement after an upset victory over Navy in the first round, followed by a pair of losses – the last to GW. Cornell started this season in that No. 12 ranking, but ticked down to No. 13 after a loss to Western Ontario and then to No. 15 after a setback to Virginia.
Cornell, which last won Hoehn Cups in 1993, 2006 and 2007, starts play against a Colonials squad it last saw on Jan. 19 in a neutral-site 9-0 loss in Williamstown, Mass. That evened the all-time series between the programs at 4-4, but GW won both of last year's meetings by slim margins of 5-4 and 6-3 – the latter coming in the aforementioned 11th-place playoff at this event last year.
Juniors
Andy Muran and
Perry Hanson have been among the strongest elements of the Big Red lineup, battling to a combined record of 14-20 from the top two positions. Freshman
Illia Presman is 8-10 from the middle of the order, tied with Hanson for team lead in victories.
Two of the other Hoehn Cup quarterfinals, No. 9 Yale vs. No. 16 Navy and No. 12 Drexel vs. No. 13 Brown, will run simultaneous to the action between Cornell and GW. The last quarterfinal is set for 1 p.m. Friday, featuring #11 Western Ontario vs. #14 Virginia. The winner of that match and the Cornell-GW clash will meet in the semifinals at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, while the losers head to the consolation semifinals and meet at 9 a.m. Saturday.
All of the Hoehn Cup's matches on Friday and Saturday will be staged at Trinity's Kellner Squash Center. The four placement matches on Sunday will be between 8:30 a.m. and noon, with the ninth-place match at Kellner, the 11th-place match at the Westminster School, and the 13th- and 15th-place matches at the Loomis Chaffee School.
