Squash: Brown, Bates dominated in weekend meets

Imagine a game of rock, paper, scissors in which one person always threw rock and the other always threw scissors. It would be similar to the men’s and women’s squash teams’ Saturday matches. Princeton was the rock this time, dominating both its opponents.

The No. 2 Princeton men (4-0 overall, 2-0 Ivy League) defeated No. 13 Brown (0-2, 0-2) convincingly, winning all nine matches without losing a single game. The men have not lost a match to Brown since 2004.

It is difficult to imagine a more dominant performance, but senior tri-captain David Canner remained humble.

“We obviously took [the match] very seriously,” he said.

Junior Peter Sopher also gave credit to Brown. “They were respectable,” he said, adding, “The two teams were clearly on different levels.”

All nine Tigers won in three games, and individual game scores were lopsided as well.

Canner emphasized that all the players were focused on winning as quickly as possible.

“We knew we had a match against Bates, so we had to be all business,” he said.

The match against No. 12 Bates (6-2) came immediately after the Brown match, leaving some players, like Canner, only 15 minutes to rest between the two. Despite such a short break, the Tigers swept Bates, 9-0. Eight of the nine players won in three games, with victory in the ninth match coming in four games.

Though neither match proved very exciting from a competition standpoint, the Tigers were happy to see the return of sophomore All-American Chris Callis to the lineup.

“We definitely need [Callis] next week against Rochester, so it was great to have him back on court,” Canner said.

At the bottom of the ladder, junior Craig Matthews and senior tri-captain James Thorman each had the opportunity to play in the top nine for the first time this season. Matthews won in three games against Brown, and Thorman won in four against Bates. Both played in the ninth position. Matthews is also a staff writer for The Daily Princetonian.

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Canner said he was happy to see Matthews and Thorman playing in the top nine and doing well. “Its good to get the guys who don’t typically play in the top nine to get that experience,” he explained.

The No. 1 women (3-1, 2-0) lost only one individual match in their contests against No. 10 Brown (0-2, 0-2) and No. 12 Bates (7-1). The women defeated Brown 8-1, ending their five-year streak of sweeping all nine matches against the Bears. They made up for it against Bates, winning 9-0.

Playing back-to-back matches can be extremely tiring, especially with a depleted lineup.

“We were in a kind of unique position with our injuries, where we only had nine players who were physically able to be on court,” senior tri-captain Kaitlin Sennatt said.

Sophomore Eliza Kontulis stepped up for the Tigers and won her first varsity victory in the Bates match in the ninth position.

Though the women welcomed senior tri-captain Emery Maine back into the lineup after a recent bout with the flu, they are still missing senior tri-captain Amanda Siebert, senior Neha Kumar, junior Nikki Sequeira, sophomore Clare Kuensell and freshman Alice Fuller.

The women do not have another match until January, by which time they hope to have most of their injured players back. Sennatt stressed the two-pronged importance of the long break from match play. “It gives us an opportunity to get healthy,” she said, “[and] gives us very solid practice time.”

Without matches to interrupt training, each Tiger can focus on improving her game.

Though it was an easy match for both the men’s and women’s teams, it was their first match at home in Jadwin Gymnasium. “Everyone was happy to get a home game under their belt,” Sennatt said.

While the Tigers mercilessly defeated their opponents, the matches against Brown were important.

“Our first team goal is to win the Ivy League this year,” Canner said. “Beating Brown was just another step on the path towards that.”

The men continue their season this coming Sunday at the University of Rochester. The women’s next match comes Jan. 27 at Penn.