SAINTS MATCH TEAM WIN MARK, GO 2-2 ON WEEKEND IN MAINE

 

Jan. 28: St. Lawrence University’s men’s squash team, ranked 18 th nationally, went 2-2 in its annual trip to Maine, losing to eighth-ranked Bates and 12 th-ranked Bowdoin, but coming through with wins over George Washington and Colby.

 

The Saints, now 11-4, have matched the single-season team victory mark heading into matches against Cornell and Rochester this weekend.

 

The Saints opened the Maine trip with a 7-2 loss at Bates on Friday as the eighth ranked Bobcats took four matches in straight games. Sophomore Nick Pearson sustained his first individual loss of the year for the Saints to Matt Marchisotto of Bates, but did not go down easily, as the first two games of the match were each decided by 10-8 scores. Dan McElvaine, the top-ranked Saint individual at 38th nationally, lost his lone match of the weekend at one to tenth-ranked Ricardo Weisskopf.

 

Tyler Stout and Tom Whelan had the Saint wins in the Bates match as Stout beat Nick Echeverra 3-2 at five, coming from 2-1 down to win the last two games 9-5 and 9-1 and Whelan bat Dae Ro Lee 9-5, 9-6, 9-7 at eight. Scott Redpath took Jordan Greenberg to four games at three and Bates’ Marc Taggart won a 3-2 marathon against Ben Ross with Ross winning games three and four by 10-9 scores to force a fifth game. Nick Colandra also went four games at nine with two 10-8 games in the match.

 

The Saints enjoyed a successful Saturday at Bowdoin as they topped Colby 9-0 and George Washington
8-1.

 

Dan McElvaine, Pearson, Stout, Dan Shafer and Ross all won 3-0 matches against Colby. Alex Dodge beat Justin Russell of Colby 3-1 at two while Redpath won 3-2 at three in one of the most exciting matches of the day. Redpath beat Alex Fulton 9-5 in game one, Fulton came back with a 9-4 win in game two and the two traded 10-9 wins in games three and four before Redpath prevailed 10-8 in the decisive fifth game. Whelan went five games with Scott Holt at eight, winning 9-5 in the fifth, Colandra won 3-1 at nine and Pete Montesano came from two down to won 3-2 in the exhibition at ten.

 

The Saints swept matches one through eight against George Washington with all but one of the wins going in three straight games. McElvaine allowed only three points in his match at one and Dodge surrendered only seven in a 3-0 win at two. Redpath dropped his first game against Alex Funk, but came back to win with game scores of 9-4, 9-2 and 9-0. Pearson, Stout, Shafer, Ross and Whelan also had wins in three straight games in four through eight.

 

Mike Bower beat Calandra 3-0 at nine for the lone GWU point and Brad Birenbaum won the exhibition match 3-0.

 

McElvaine beat Palmer Higgins 3-0 at one and Ross beat Ray Carta 3-2 at seven for the Saint points in a 7-2 loss to 12 th-ranked Bowdoin to complete the three-day trip to Maine.

 

Ross won the first two games in his match, but Carta rallied with wins in games three and four before Ross secured the match with a 10-9 win in game five. McElvaine surrendered just six points in his match.

Redpath pushed David Funk to four games at three, Pearson went four with Andy Bernard at four and Stout went five games with Peter Cipriano at five.