Men's Squash Wins Consolation Final at CSA Team Championships

Friday, February 17

Princeton, N.J.

1:30 p.m.

Drexel University

Georgetown

Photo by: Greg Carroccio

Men's Squash Wins Consolation Final at CSA Team Championships

2/20/2012 9:35:00 AM | Men's Squash

PRINCETON, N.J. - The first season of Drexel men's squash is nearing a close, as the Dragons performed well at the Collegiate Squash Association Team Championships at Princeton University over the weekend, going 2-1 overall and winning the consolation final of the Conroy Cup to earn a national ranking of 29 for the season.

The Dragons fell to Georgetown on Friday in the first round of the Conroy Cup, 5-4. They then rebounded to defeat MIT on Saturday morning and Johns Hopkins on Sunday, each by 8-1 finals. Head coach John White called the Johns Hopkins match "the best win of the season," after the team had falling to the Blue Jays 6-3 back in November.

Justin Singh, who played atop the Drexel ladder all season long, finished his season 16-2 overall after sweeping all three of his matches over the weekend. Sebastian Dangond Gala and Nick DiDonato did the same, sporting 3-0 marks at the Championships.

After the disappointing loss to Georgetown, a team the Dragons had defeated 5-4 earlier in the season, Drexel rebounded nicely on Saturday morning, quickly dispatching MIT by an 8-1 count. The match of the weekend came on Sunday, when Drexel went up against Johns Hopkins in the consolation final of the Conroy Cup, classified as the D Division by the CSA.

Drexel struggled early on against Johns Hopkins, seeing four of their first five players on the court go down by 2-0 or 2-1 set scores. Matt Schreffler, Nakul Jain, Ben Bevan and Robert Steidle all went down early, only to come storming back. All four showed focus and determination, and came back to win in five games, a turn of events that demoralized the Blue Jays and had Drexel charged and ready for the second round of matches. The Dragons would make quick work of Johns Hopkins after that, emerging with the 8-1 victory.

The win left Drexel ranked No. 29 in the nation at the conclusion of their first year as a varsity program. Princeton, which hosted the event, ended the 14-year reign of Trinity as the national champions when they defeated the Bantams yesterday in the Potter Cup title match.

The season is not entirely over yet, as the CSA Individual Championships are set to take place March 2-4 in Amherst, Mass. The Dragons will wait and see where players such as Singh will be seeded in the event as they compete for an individual title.