Western Ontario Knocks Off Saints, 8-1

by: 

Dale Walker

Sophomore Tyler Stout won his match in five games on Friday night.

Jan. 29: The St. Lawrence University men's squash team tested one of the premier teams in Canada, the University of Western Ontario, on Friday evening at the Robie Squash Courts.  Sophomore Tyler Stout gave the Saints their lone point of the match, though all but two matches went four or more games.

Stout, a native of Wyndmoor, PA, was able to grind out a five-game victory against Andrew Silvestri at the No. 5 position.  After winning each of the first two games 11-5, Stout dropped the following two games 12-10 and 11-2.  In a fantastic fifth game, Stout was able to hold off Silvestri 12-10 to earn the win.

First-year students Amay Merchant and Roger Miller were narrowly defeated by Western Ontario's Strachan Jarvis and Varun Prakash, respectively.  Merchant rallied from two games down at the No. 2 position against Jarvis, but lost the fifth game 12-10, while Miller battled back to force a deciding game as well before falling 11-8 at the No. 9 slot.

Western Ontario, which is coached by former St. Lawrence assistant squash coach Andrew Mount, picked up 3-1  wins at the No. 4, 6, 7 and 8 slots.  Yeshale Chetty defeated St. Lawrence's sophomore Jermaine Xaba at No. 4, while Joel Rothwell needed a 14-12 win in the fourth game to beat Nick Pearson at No. 6.  Sophomore Michael Badali fell to Tashlin Reddy at No. 7 and Thomas Kraft lost in four to Rafik Bhaloo at No. 8.

Sophomore Scott Phillips played the No. 1 spot for St. Lawrence, battling Ryan Herden of Western Ontario.  Herden won the match 11-6, 11-6, 11-9, while Kimesh Chetty swept junior Alex Dodge at the No. 3 slot, 11-3, 11-9, 11-8.

The Saints will be in action again tomorrow, Saturday, January 30^th when they play a round robin with Western Ontario, Hamilton and the University of Vermont.  Matches will begin at 11:00am at the Robin Squash Courts.