The Bears traveled to Harvard last weekend for the Team Nationals Squash Tournament, playing in the B division, and emerged with a placement of 14th in the country, two places higher than their No.16 ranking in mid-January of this year.
Although losing their match on Sunday against Bowdoin, 6-3, the Bears won the day before against a tough Franklin and Marshall team, 6-3.
At the end of the Tournament, the Bears' record dropped to 9-5 for the season, but Head Coach Stuart leGassick said that the team "left everything on the courts."
Nationals started off poorly for the Bears, who fell short against 10th-ranked Bates, losing 9-0 on Friday afternoon. The match extended far beyond the average playing time with five of the nine matches going to four or five games. Despite the tough competition, No. 4 Adrian Leanza '11 and No. 6 North Whipple '08 both pushed their opponents into close fifth-game deciders in narrowly lost matches.
But the team was able to turn it around on Saturday, winning 6-3 against 14th-ranked Franklin and Marshall. Against the Diplomats, captain Ed Cerullo '08 led by example. Battling through a tough four-game match against the Diplomats' first seed, Cerullo came out on top 10-8, 7-9, 9-6, 9-7. Four of the Bears' six wins came in three quick games from Leanza, Evan Besser '11, Whipple and Pat Davis '10, while Alex Heitzmann '10 won in four games.
The big match of the weekend arrived on Sunday, with Brown and Bowdoin playing for the 13th ranking. The highlight of the day - the Bears' last match of the season - belonged to Ross Harrow '11, who narrowly lost his match at No. 3, 10-8, in the fifth game of a marathon, 3-9, 3-9, 9-2, 9-2, 8-10. Cerullo, Besser and Davis brought in the only three Brown wins of the day, with Davis' coming in five games. Both Besser and Davis had strong performances despite having to play through tough circumstances - the former with a sprained ankle and the latter a stomach flu.
"I was feeling terrible prior to the match and was very wary of playing," said Davis. "But as soon as I stepped onto the court I felt a lot better. This being the last match of the season, everyone was giving it their all."
Despite eventually losing 6-3 against Bowdoin, the Bears came away from the weekend with a ranking two spots higher than they held a mere month ago.
"On the whole, a young team gained a lot of experience at Nationals and we look forward with optimism for the next season," leGassick said.
Although the Bears' next season doesn't start until November, Cerullo has one more match to play in the Brown colors, as he will represent his team at the Individual Intercollegiates at Navy over the first weekend of March.
