The men's squash team brought its regular season to a close yesterday afternoon with a painless shutout against MIT.
Although MIT was expected to be better this year than in the past, seven of the nine matches were 3-0 in favor of the Big Green.
Co-captain Scott Hammond '96 led the way with a 3-1 victory at number one. John Gabel '98 was back in action with a 3-2 win at number two after missing some match play.
Players in spots three through nine all posted 3-0 wins. Co-captain John-Keith Wasson '96 played number three. He was followed by Russell Echlov '97, Will Leicht '99, Zach Segal '98, Tucker Richmond '99, Bill Tarr '98 and Ranjit Ahluwalia '97.
"They played really well," Coach Chris Brownell said. "Sometimes it's hard to play well when you expect to win. They're really focused and playing really strong."
Tarr finished up the season with an overall record of 15-1. His only loss was to Bowdoin in November of last year.
"That's pretty tough to do," Brownell said. "He's quite a strong number eight."
The MIT match was significant as the last home match for the seniors on the Big Green team. In particular, Hammond finishes up a four-year career on the varsity squad.
Hammond played number three his freshman year, number two his sophomore and junior years, and has come up as number one this year.
"Scott's been playing some super squash," Brownell said. "He not only wants to win, but he knows he can win. Sometimes [players] just want to win ... but he's got both."
This weekend Yale University will host the mens' national team championships. The Big Green goes into the tournament seeded third in the second bracket, or 11th overall out of roughly 40 teams.
The Big Green will face Hobart in their first match and, if all goes well, Brown in their second match.
Brownell said that ideally she hopes to have another shot at Franklin and Marshall in the final round.
"We're better than we were last year," she said. "The guys on bottom are a little tougher. Everyone's a little wiser."
