At various periods during this season for Drexel Squash, circumstances have acted as humbling experiences, moments from which one can learn. Such was the case Dec. 7 when the men’s squash team lost at home 7-2 to the United States Naval Academy. The loss was Drexel’s seventh of the season so far and served as the team’s last match before the end of the fall portion of the season. (The women’s squash team had ended its fall portion a few days earlier.)
Despite freshman Binura Jayasuriya winning the opening match of the day at the No. 4 position, the Midshipmen would subsequently string a run of six straight wins to take hold of the match. It was an advantage that they would not relinquish. Nevertheless, there were some positives for the Dragons on this day. Three players, sophomore Ibrahim Bakir and the freshman duo of Mike Dolente and Mark Kauf, lost their matches in tough five-setters at the No. 2, No. 3, and No. 5 positions, respectively. However, the brightest spot for Drexel came from perhaps the team’s best player, junior Justin Singh.
Playing at the No. 1 position, Singh defeated Navy’s Andrew McGuinness in four sets (12-14, 15-13, 11-4, 11-8). Singh, who was named CLEAR’s Drexel Athlete of the Week for Dec. 10-16 along with sophomore Damion Lee of the men’s basketball team, was the star of the men’s team last season with a 12-2 record and should be the player that hopefully leads Drexel into a turnaround come the second half of the season.
Next for Drexel Squash comes the start of the second portion of the season. Both the men and women will start off Jan. 19 with matches against Colby College and Bowdoin College in New Haven, Conn., on the campus of Yale University.