This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in December 2017.
The Fordham squash team pummeled Duke University by a score of 9-0 at the Lombardi squash courts on the Fordham University campus last Saturday afternoon. Then, the Rams followed that with a 9-0 victory against Penn State University and an 8-1 triumph over New York University on Sunday. All matches took place at Fordham University.
The team came into the weekend with a 7-2 record after strong showings at its first two tournaments of the season. Coming into this group of matches, head coach Sahel Anwar decided to keep the same lineup he used for most of the beginning of the season. That decision paid off in a big way.
Senior Peter Yuen started Saturday with a straight-sets victory over David Laub which included a thrilling 13-11 triumph in the second set. Next up for the Rams was fellow senior and Broomall, Pennsylvania native John Lennon, who, after dropping the first set 12-10, won three in a row to defeat the Blue Devils’ Samir Agadi. Lennon’s first-game loss to Agadi would be the only game the Rams would drop all day.
In the cleanup role, Madison, New Jersey’s Bruce Czachor conceded just 16 points in his three-set victory, and freshman Griffin Fitzgerald allowed just ten points in a win of his own. Tommy White, in the sixth spot in the lineup, swept Duke’s Shivaan Tandon in straight sets, graduate student Joseph Hughes, freshman Justin Deckoff and junior Will Beatrez all were able to do the same. At the end of the day, Fordham had lost just one set and won all nine of its individual matches en route to a 9-0 victory.
On Sunday, the Rams picked up right where they left off with another clean sweep victory over Penn State. The most thrilling victory of that matchup once again belonged to Lennon, who came back from two games down to defeat Penn State’s Tomoki Takasawa in five games. Every other player for the Rams completed his match in three games. In the final matchup of the weekend against NYU, the Rams were slightly less dominant but were still able to cruise to an 8-1 victory. Beatrez won his match against the Violets’ Giles Perkins in five sets in an otherwise relaxed and business-like affair for a Rams squad that now finds itself at 10-2.
Fordham Squash does not have any events scheduled for the remainder of 2017; the next matches scheduled for the team will take place on Jan. 20 and 21, against Bard University, Colgate University and New York University.