ITHACA, N.Y. — The No. 10-ranked Cornell men's squash team returns to the Belkin Squash Courts this weekend to conclude its three-match homestand, hosting No. 18 Western and No. 11 Tufts.
Cornell (2-1), coming off a 9-0 loss to No. 2 Trinity on Wednesday afternoon, will open the weekend slate against Western on Friday at 6:30 p.m., before hosting Tufts on Sunday at 11 a.m. Western and Tufts will face each other on Saturday afternoon, also held at the Belkin Squash Courts.
Both of Cornell's matches will be streamed live for free on Stretch Internet.
LAST MATCH REWIND
Seven of Trinity's nine victories over Cornell on Wednesday came in straight-game sweeps. Freshman
Edward Thng and sophomore
Roman Bicknell were the lone Big Red players to push their opponents beyond three games.
Thng engaged in the match's most competitive battle at No. 4, taking a 2-1 lead over Trinity's Huzaifa Ibrahim, who responded with 11-6 and 11-5 victories in the fourth and fifth games to claim the match, 11-5, 4-11, 6-11, 11-6, 11-5. Bicknell won the opening game, 11-8, against Daniel Simon at No. 7 before dropping the next three, 8-11, 11-4, 11-5, 11-5.
SCOUTING WESTERN
Western (2-2) opened its season with victories over No. 19 Rochester (5-4) and No. 13 MIT (8-1) before struggling last weekend in St. Catharines, Ontario, dropping contests to No. 3 Harvard (9-0) and No. 6 Princeton (8-1).
Rio Schafer is the lone Mustang player with multiple wins on the season, entering play with a 2-2 record, all of which has come from the No. 7 position. Five other Western players have all registered one victory apiece.
The all-time series heavily favors Western, which won the first 22 meetings between the programs from Nov. 22, 1969, to Jan. 13, 2001. However, Cornell has turned the tide in dramatic fashion, going 18-9 since that stretch, including wins in the last four matches and a 13-3 mark in the last 16 encounters. During its current four-match win streak, the Big Red have posted at least seven victories in each meeting.
SCOUTING TUFTS
Tufts (0-2) will play three matches in as many days this weekend, concluding its New York road swing with Sunday's contest against the Big Red. The Jumbos open the trip against Hamilton College on Friday before facing Western in a neutral-site match in Ithaca on Saturday.
Entering this weekend's slate, the Jumbos are still searching for their first win of the season after losing to No. 7 Columbia and No. 2 Trinity by respective 8-1 and 9-0 scores last weekend. Nachiket Decai is the lone player on Tufts' roster with a win this season, having defeated Columbia's Shaurya Bawa at the No. 2 position in last Saturday's season opener.
Cornell owns an impressive 11-match win streak against the Jumbos, dating back to a loss in the inaugural meeting between the programs on Jan. 24, 1981.
