No. 11 men’s squash (16-6, 8-0 NESCAC) concluded its season on a high note this past weekend, defeating the No. 12 Tufts Jumbos (11-10, 5-2 NESCAC) 5-4 on the last day of the College Squash Association (CSA) Championships. The victory made the Ephs the eleventh-ranked team in the nation, their best finish since 2013. It came on the heels, however, of losses on Thursday and Friday against the No. 7 Drexel Dragons (11-9) and No. 11 Dartmouth Big Green (7-10).

The Ephs rode a wave of late-February success into the season-ending CSAs. After a hard-fought 5-4 loss to Tufts in the NESCAC semifinals on Feb. 9, the Ephs responded with a 5-4 victory over then-No. 10 Dartmouth on Feb. 15 ­— the team’s first time defeating the Big Green in 17 years. The Dartmouth matchup was also the Ephs’ Senior Day celebration, which brought in a packed home crowd. “That was probably the most exciting sports event I’ve ever been a part of,” Asher Leavy ’26 said.

According to Leavy, the Ephs knew that they could solidify a top-ten ranking nationally with a win against Dartmouth. “The stakes were high, and I think [that], after [the Tufts] loss, we took ourselves really seriously,” he said. “The week [before Dartmouth], we were doing match review lessons with Coach Hesham [Aly], going in twice a day. We were just really amped up for it.”

The Ephs and Big Green were locked into a tight battle, tied at three games apiece going into the final three matches of the day. Ultimately, the Ephs came away triumphant due to the heroics of Will Newton ’28 and Nick Agger ’27 who both won their matches 3-0. 

“[Agger] has been a rock-star all year,” co-captain Andrew Minnis ’25 said. “His opponent beat him the year before in three, so for him to flip that result was impressive.”

The team followed up its pivotal win against Dartmouth with a 9-0 thrashing of No. 25 Wesleyan (7-10, 1-6 NESCAC) on Feb. 22 to take home the Little Three trophy and head into the CSA Championships with serious momentum. 

The victories cemented the team’s place in the CSAs as the tenth seed, a marked improvement from the season prior, when a late loss to the Jumbos in NESCACs dropped the Ephs out of the 12-team tournament entirely.

The Ephs used the two-week gap between the Wesleyan game and CSAs — a longer interval between matches than normal — to prepare intensely. “Those two weeks, [Aly] decided to really ramp up the fitness, ramp up the training, make that first week tough for us physically so that we’d be prepared for the competition we’d face,” Alex Akbari ’26 said in an interview with the Record.

The team traveled to Philadelphia last week with their first match against the seventh-seed Drexel Dragons on Thursday. Despite the Dragons’ home-field advantage, the Ephs felt confident. “Because we were pretty close in seeding, we really thought we could beat them,” Leavy said. “Last year, there was a seven-seed upset, so it wasn’t crazy.”

After a series of close matches, the Ephs lost to the Dragons 8-1. “After the loss, we put that behind us and focused on our upcoming match against Dartmouth,” Minnis said.

Co-captain Jack Lee ’25 was the only Eph to win his match against a Dragon opponent, triumphing in three games to put the Ephs on the board. “[It was the] best match of his life,” Leavy said. “He just played lights out, it was remarkable.”

On Friday, the Ephs faced Dartmouth in a rematch. The team knew the Big Green would be tough to beat twice in a row. “Historically, we have beaten a team then lost to them a second time,” Leavy said. “It just goes to show how close these rivalries are.” 

According to Akbari, the Big Green also added their No. 3 player back into the fold for CSAs, strengthening their lineup. Ultimately, Dartmouth took a 7-2 win, despite strong perforcmances from the Ephs. “I think people were playing really well,” Akbari said. “Where it didn’t go our way on some of the big points, Dartmouth capitalized more than we did. In a lot of the matches, people got to the point where it was 7-all, 8-all in the game, then Dartmouth would run away.”

Among many tight losses, Himanshu Pannu ’28 and Lee were able to win their matches, providing a bright spot and placing some scoreboard pressure on Dartmouth. “Sometimes you do all you can to prepare, and you just end up falling short, Minnis said. “I want everyone to hold their heads high.”

Following the Dartmouth loss, the Ephs went into Saturday’s match against Tufts determined to win. “What we cared about was ending on a high note, [and] all of our seniors having a great final match,” Leavy said. “You want to end with a win, especially against a team that you have a really strong rivalry with.” 

“We had to forget about the rankings, play our best squash, and set the record straight with Tufts,” he added.

The Ephs’ superior fitness came into play against Jumbos, with both Newton and Pannu overcoming initial deficits to win their matches in four games. “The freshmen were standout the entire year, but especially against this Tufts team,” Minnis said. 

Leavy and Akbari noted that, in the first wave of matches, all three Ephs went down 1-0 in their first games. “We were a little bit scared,” Leavy said. “But we told everybody to trust the training, trust the physicality, and eventually you’ll wear [the] guy down.” 

“Newton and [Pannu] … allowed the other guys to play with confidence and comfort,” Minnis added.

The team’s seniors also finished strong in their final match, with Minnis and Pierce Henderson ’25 winning their matches in four and five games, respectively. Henderson came back from a 2-0 game deficit to win his final three games 11-8, 11-5, and 11-9.

“Pierce had the match of the season,” Leavy said. “For a second there [in the third game], it became bigger than that individual match. It was his whole squash career, culminating in this final match that he could win — it would just have to go to five.”

After Henderson and Minnis won to give the Ephs a 4-1 lead, Akbari guaranteed an Eph triumph with a four-game victory that lasted an hour and fourteen minutes. “I really wanted to play my tactics well, volley more, step up the pace,” he said. “I ended up taking the third game and from there, clinched it, which was huge.”

Akbari’s win gave the Ephs a 5-1 match lead. The final three matches, despite going to the Jumbos, could not change the outcome: an Eph victory to end the year, and a final ranking of 11th for the Ephs. 

For the seniors, the victory confirmed that the they are leaving the team in a good spot. “It’s a bit bittersweet that my career is over,” Minnis said. “But I’ve come to realize the fact that we’ve carried on a tradition that’s been left by the generations behind us. Carrying on their legacy means a lot to me, and I think we’ve done a good job with that.”