PHILADELPHIA - Nobody said it was going to be easy. In fact, going into Wednesday night, the University of Pennsylvania men's squash team expected a tough challenge when number six Rochester, a team they had lost to twice last season, visited The Ringe. What the crowd at the Ringe got was an instant classic.
Tied 4-4 with one match remaining, Penn's number one player, freshman
Andrew Douglas, trailing two games to one at the time, would decide whether or not the Red and Blue came away with a victory. Douglas had lost just one game all season, but lost the first two in his match against the Yellowjackets' Ashley Davies.
The freshman won the fourth game 11-8 to force a fifth, but the comeback had only started. A classic back and fourth match between two players that wanted nothing more but to win captivated all eyes at the Ringe. Down 10-7 and facing three match points, it looked like inexperience would be the eventual downfall of Douglas and the Quakers, but that would not be the case at all.
Out of nowhere, Douglas took his game to another level and shocked the crowd winning three straight points to tie things up at 10-10. He wouldn't trail again. Up 12-11, "Douggie" as they call him, hit a kill down the right side that Davies couldn't reach. With the match riding on his shoulders, down two games to none and facing three match points, Douglas did what seemed like the impossible and won 3-2, giving the Red and Blue one of their biggest wins of the year defeating Rochester 5-4.
The Quakers improve to 6-1 on the season including 4-1 at home.
While Douglas may have had the match of the night, senior
Hayes Murphy completed a comeback of his own. Murphy won the first game 11-9, but fell in the next two 4-11, 9-11 to go down two games to one to Tomotaka Endo. The senior won the next game 11-7 to force a fifth and looked to be in control up 7-2 in the deciding set. Endo would not go away easy however . Murphy lost six straight points and went down 8-7, but got back to playing his game to win the match and start the comeback theme of the day winning 3-2.
Yash Bhargava,
James Watson, and
Max Reed all won their matches with relative ease as they all swept winning 3-0.
Karim Hussein and
Marwan Mahmoud each lose tough five game matches of their own.
While being both a physically and mentally draining match, the Quakers will have just three days to get ready for the start of Ivy play. Penn will face Yale on Saturday and Brown on Sunday. Both matches start at noon.
Full Results
1.
Andrew Douglas (PENN) d. Ashley Davies (ROCH) - 7-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-8, 13-11
2.
Hayes Murphy (PENN) d. Tomotaka Endo (ROCH) - 11-9, 4-11, 9-11, 11-7, 11-9
3. Lawrence Kuhn (ROCH) d.
Marwan Mahmoud (PENN) - 8-11, 10-12, 11-8, 11-8, 13-11
4. Ricardo Lopez (ROCH) d.
David Yacobucci (PENN) - 11-9, 11-4, 11-4
5. Matthew Toth (ROCH) d.
Karim Hussein (PENN) - 11-1, 6-11, 7-11, 11-4, 11-5
6. Marcus Sim Wei Jie (ROCH) d.
Derek Hsue (PENN) - 8-11, 12-10, 11-1, 11-9
7.
Yash Bhargava (PENN) d. Numair Sani (ROCH) - 11-9, 11-9, 11-5
8.
James Watson (PENN) d. Ben Pitfield (ROCH) - 11-6, 11-7, 11-4
9.
Max Reed (PENN) d. Rodrigo Porras (ROCH) - 11-5, 15-13, 11-7
10 (EXH).
Wil Hagen (PENN) d. Alexander Riedelsheimer - 11-7, 11-8, 11-13, 11-9
