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by Alicia Nemiccolo MacLeay '97 In January, during the heart of the squash season, the Colby men's team reached an all-time high-water mark when it was ranked 10th in the nation by the National Intercollegiate Squash Racquets Association (NISRA). Head coach Fred Brussels says this is especially impressive considering that three of his top 10 players, including co-captain Tom Reynolds '00 (Pittsburgh, Pa.), never played squash before coming to Colby. "Everyone worked hard this season and our ranking showed it," said Brussels.
This year the White Mules won the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin squash title for the second time in three years, and co-captain Preston Amos '01 (Ladue, Mo.) won the individual title. The team ended the regular season with a 13-5 record and a ranking of 11th in the country. Brussels, in his fourth year as the Colby head coach, is part of the reason for the team's recent success. Prior to his coaching, the highest the team had been ranked was 17th. Brussels routinely schedules matches against the best teams in the country. The team's five regular-season losses came against Harvard, Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth and Yale-all top 10 teams. Colby entered team nationals held at Yale University in February with the number three seed in the "B" flight of nationals, up one flight from 1998-99. The 38 collegiate teams are seeded by record into five divisions. The Mules initially were up three wins to one against Navy in their first round contest but ultimately lost 4-5. The final two losses came from matches that lasted the full five games. "I think we just ran out of steam," said Brussels. A tough 3-6 loss to the University of Pennsylvania and a 5-4 win against MIT left Colby with a final national ranking of 15 and a 14-7 record. "Team nationals was a good experience, but a little disappointing," said Amos. "Although we didn't win our first two matches as we would have liked to, finishing with a win was a nice way to end the season," he said of the MIT match. Amos and Rahul Singh '03 (Noida, India), the top two players on the team, both competed in the individual national tournament in March at Williams College. They'll also both return to the team next year. Singh, a past member of the Indian Junior National Team, says that in his eight years of competitive squash, this year's Colby men's team was one of the most dedicated and committed teams he ever has played on. "Our next target is to break into the top 10 next year," said Singh. |
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