PHILADELPHIA – The men's squash team opened its season with a sweep of Bates on Saturday before suffering a narrow loss to Virginia on Sunday in a pair of neutral-site matches at Penn Squash Center.
 
Cornell (1-1), which entered the weekend tabbed ninth the College Squash Association's national rankings, cruised to sweeps across the board in a 9-0 decision over 23rd-ranked Bates (0-3) in the programs' first meeting since 2013. The Big Red deployed five underclassmen that all won their first respective intercollegiate matches – sophomores Nick Robinson (No. 6) and Spencer Yager (No. 2), and freshmen Rohan Iyer (No. 9), Shreemann Raghavan (No. 5) and Arnaav Sareen (No. 3).
 
Sunday's match against eighth-ranked Virginia (2-3) was a different story, coming down to the wire with early-season positioning for the Potter Cup on the line. Two of the matches exceeded an hour, including junior Nikhil Arjunan Iyer's rally to win in five at No. 8 and give Cornell a 2-1 lead after the opening rotation. Like senior Charles Culhane (No. 4) before him, Robinson swept in three at No. 7 to leave the teams even at 3 entering the final three matches. Junior Humza Khan (No. 9) won for the second straight day to secure the fourth point, but Virginia surged ahead late to win.
 
The Big Red returns to action with a trip to Williams on Dec. 4 before opening Ivy League play the next day at Columbia.
 

Virginia 5, Cornell 4

National rankings: Virginia 8, Cornell 9
Sunday; at Penn Squash Center; Philadelphia, Pa.
1. Aly Hussein (V) def. Veer Chotrani, 8-11, 7-11, 11-3, 11-9, 11-3
2. Omar El Torky (V) def. Spencer Yager, 11-4, 11-5, 12-10
3. Cullen Little (V) def. Arnaav Sareen, 10-12, 11-3, 17-15, 11-2
4. Charles Culhane (C) def. Tyler Mackesy, 11-9, 11-7, 11-3
5. Myles McIntyre (V) def. Nicholas Göth Errington, 11-7, 11-8, 11-9
6. C.J. Baldini (V) def. Shreemann Raghavan, 11-7, 11-5, 11-7
7. Nick Robinson (C) def. William Holey, 11-6, 13-11, 11-7
8. Nikhil Arjunan Iyer (C) def. Andrew Barr, 11-5, 10-12, 7-11, 11-3, 11-8
9. Humza Khan (C) def. Francis Hajek, 11-7, 11-9, 11-5
Ex. Tanay Punjabi (C) def. Charles Braff, 11-5, 13-11, 12-10
Order of play: (2,3,1 / 4,5,6 / 8,7,9)

Cornell 9, Bates 0

National rankings: Cornell 9, Bates 23
Saturday; at Penn Squash Center; Philadelphia, Pa.
1. Veer Chotrani (C) def. Jesper Phillips, 11-4, 11-6, 11-3
2. Spencer Yager (C) def. Alec Spiro, 11-4, 11-5, 11-8
3. Arnaav Sareen (C) def. Harris Ramlee, 11-3, 11-4, 11-4
4. Charles Culhane (C) def. Peter Koenigsbauer, 11-0, 11-4, 11-4
5. Shreemann Raghavan (C) def. Sultan Hashmi, 11-0, 11-4, 11-4
6. Nick Robinson (C) def. Labeeb Ali, 11-5, 11-5, 11-0
7. Nikhil Arjunan Iyer (C) def. Jairaj Singh, 11-5, 11-7, 11-6
8. Humza Khan (C) def. Garrett Wenberg, 13-11, 11-3, 11-4
9. Rohan Iyer (C) def. Matthew Lazor, 11-9, 13-11, 11-5
Order of play: (2,3,1 / 4,5,6 / 8,7,9)