Mens Squash

Wes Wins Vassar Team Challenge with Sweeps of Columbia & Vassar, Finishes 27th at Nationals

Competing in the Vassar Team Challenge for a second straight year, Wesleyan repeated as team champion Sat., Feb. 13 as the Cardinals amassed 29 points between the men's and women's teams. None of the remaining three challengers picked up more than 17 points. Last year when each team took on the other three squads for a combined team score between men and women, Wesleyan won a tight battle over Conn. College, 31-28. This time, each team took on just two opponents. The men provided 18 of the Cardinals' 29 team points.

Wesleyan faced Columbia in its first match Sat. and blew through the Lions for a 9-0 win. Six Cardinals came up with 3-0 wins while three needed an extra game or two to prove victorious. Facing host Vassar in its second match, Wesleyan made even shorter work of the 9-0 decision, winning all but one match by a 3-0 count. In total, five Cardinals did not drop a game including #1 Robert Broadfoot '10, #2 Matt Candal '11 (main photo), #5 Brewster Lee '13 (photo insert upper left), #6 Lonnie Gibbs '10 and #8 Kyle Baicker-McKee '11.

With a national ranking of #26, Wesleyan is the #2 seed in "D" Division for the National Team Tournament which began Fri., Feb. 19, hosted primarily by Yale but with some matches being played at both Wesleyan and Choate over the weekend as alternate sites. Wesleyan opened action at Yale with a decisive 9-0 victory over #31 MIT. All Cardinals won by 3-0 scores. Wesleyan entered Nationals with a 6-2 record this season vs. opponents in "D" Division with both of the defeats by a 5-4 count.

Wesleyan's next match came up Sat., Feb. 20 at home vs. Conn. College, which defeated Georgetown, 7-2, in its opening-round match. It was the fourth meeting of the year between the teams. Wesleyan had won two out of the first three but Conn took the ever-important match, 5-4. Wesleyan won at numbers 2-5 behind Candal, Dale Kobrin '11 (photo insert lower right), Nate Fowles '10 and Lee but failed to come up with a clincher as Conn advanced to the "D" Division finals vs. Hobart. Wesleyan faced Northwestern, the only team in the division the Cardinals did not meet during the regular season, on Sunday and came through with a 6-3 victory to claim third place in the division and 27th nationally. With their victories over Northwestern, Candal, Kobrin and Lee were the three Cardinals to post 3-0 marks during Nationals. Wesleyan ends the year with a dual-match record of 12-15.

Candal, Kobrin and Lee were three of five Wesleyan regulars to have a winning record during the season. Candal led in wins with his 16-11 mark while Kobrin and Lee were both 14-13. Lucas Wherry '13 was second in victories with his 15-10 mark. Shivan Bhavnani '13 also had a 14-win season and posted the team's best winning percentage at .609 (14-9).

Broadfoot went on to compete in the National Individual Tournament hosted by Trinity Fri.-Sun., March 5-7. There he went 1-2 in the "B" Division to close out his outstanding four-year career.