This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in November 2018.
The Fordham squash team came into this season looking to build off last year’s 20-4 campaign. So far, the team is off to a similar start.
Last year, the Rams kicked off their season with four wins in as many matches at the Vassar Round Robin, and, this year, they have done the same.
Fordham started the Round Robin on Saturday morning with a convincing 7-2 win over the host university; the Rams won each of the first seven individual matches against the Brewers in straight sets and conceded the final two. The team followed a similar pattern against Vassar, winning the first eight matches before conceding the ninth after the outcome of the match was decided. The Rams started the weekend with two wins in as many matches and looked to keep things going heading into Sunday.
They were able to do just that.
Sunday’s first match was the most competitive one in Fordham’s weekend, and that really is not saying much. The first individual contest between freshman and Philadelphia native Patrick Rodden and Hunter Chun went the distance, but Rodden prevailed with a 12-10 victory in the fifth and decisive set to dictate the tone of the match for Fordham. Despite a win in the next individual match by Boston’s Parker Tonissi over sophomore Griffin Fitzgerald, Fordham took the next five individual matches in straight sets and dominated over BU, 6-1. Fordham then prevailed in a shutout 7-0 victory over Bryant in which no Rams players gave up a single set.
Overall, it was a dominant weekend for the Rams. It was especially important because of what the team needed to replace after last season. Fordham and head coach Sahel Anwar were forced to replace fifth-year senior Joseph Hughes, as well as seniors John Lennon and Peter Yuen. Those three combined to win 103 career matches and replacing them would be, and still is, no easy task. The team has five freshmen this year, and four of them—Dylan Panichello, Henry Poehlein, Winthrop Reed and Patrick Rodden—played over the weekend. The end result among the newcomers: 13 individual matches played, zero defeats.
Fordham’s rival, NYU, defeated the Rams in the final of the Chaffee Cup at the College Squash Association Team Championship last season. The Rams are looking to do better than that this year, and this weekend’s victories got them off on the right foot.
While it is just one weekend, Fordham has started its season the way it wanted to. The Rams will be at the Navy Round Robin next weekend, and after winning three out of five matches in that tournament in 2017. They will be happy with a similar result this year but, for now, Fordham is excited to be in the win column to start the season.