BALTIMORE, Md. – Behind a pair of five-game wins early in the match, the #2 University of Pennsylvania men's squash team picked up a 8-1 win over #5 Virginia in a neutral-site affair Thursday night to close out the regular season.
Tushar Shahani opened the match with a three-game win wrapped up in 27 minutes, tied for the shortest of the match of the night.
Saksham Choudhary followed Shahani with a 3-0 win of his own, the 49th victory of his Penn career.
What followed was arguably the two turning points of the match. First, newly crowned Ivy League Rookie of the Year
Omar Hafez, after going down 0-2, rallied for a remarkable five-game win. Following Hafez, newly crowned First-Team All-Ivy
Nick Spizzirri took the first, third, and fifth games of his win, putting Penn up 4-0; Spizzirri rallied from 7-1 and 10-7 down in the first game of that match.
Just a few moments after Spizzirri closed out his win,
Dillon Huang closed out the match with another 3-0 win.
Dana Santry added a four-game win to make it 6-0, and
Abdelrahman Dweek closed out his 3-0 win in the night's other 27-minute match.
After Virginia got a point on the board,
Roger Baddour, another First-Team All-Ivy, closed out the night with a hard-fought four-game win, each game finishing 11-8 or closer.
The men open the CSA Team Championships next Friday from the campus of Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. If current College Squash Association (CSA) rankings hold, Penn would play Philly foe Drexel in the Potter Cup quarterfinals.
Results
- Aly Hussein (V) def. Nathan Kueh – 11-1, 11-3, 11-7
- Nick Spizzirri def. Omar El Torkey (V) – 12-10, 11-13, 11-6, 6-11, 11-6
- Roger Baddour def. John Paul Tew (V) – 11-9, 10-12, 11-8, 12-10
- Omar Hafez def. Cullen Little (V) – 14-16, 9-11, 11-4, 11-3, 11-6
- Dillon Huang def. CJ Baldini (V) – 11-7, 11-3, 11-5
- Saksham Choudhary def. Francis Hajek (V) – 11-4, 11-7, 11-6
- Dana Santry def. Myles McIntyre (V) – 7-11, 11-7, 11-3, 11-5
- Tushar Shahani def. Tyler Mackesy (V) – 11-7, 11-3, 11-4
- Abdelrahman Dweek def. Teddy Durfee (V) – 11-8, 11-7, 11-7
Order of finish: 8, 6, 4, 2, 5, 7, 9, 1, 3
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