San Diego, Calif. – (March 2, 2024) – The Fordham squash team capped their team schedule with a pair of matches on the west coast on Saturday afternoon at the Access Youth Academy in San Diego. The Rams "stayed classy" and the most out of the trip, earning victories over UCLA and Cal.
With the win, Fordham finishes the season with a 21-9 record.
Fordham opened the day with a 7-2 victory over the Bruins.
The Rams won at the second through eighth slots, led by
Bennett Van Liew at second position. He defeated Micah Kim in three games, 11-9, 11-4, and 12-10.
Henry Frawley knocked off Andrii Tkachuk at third position, 11-6, 11-6, 11-2, while
Jack Stanley topped Shubhav Suri at the fourth slot, 11-6, 11-4, and 12-10.
Peter Vorbach won at the fifth slot over Aadi Bhandari, 11-6, 11-5, and 11-8, with
Robert Cruikshank taking the sixth position match over Shaurya Jain, 11-5 11-6, and 11-4. The Rams then got close out wins by
Gray Kearns (7
th) and
Nicholas Choo (8
th) for the 7-2 team win.
Fordham then pulled out a 5-4 win over Cal, capped by an incredible come-from-behind win by
Nicholas Gilman at first position which ended up as the deciding point.
Stanley won a marathon match at fourth position over Richard Cherry Labourene in five games, 11-8, 4-11, 11-7, 8-11, and 11-6, while Vorbach pick up his second win of the day in three games (11-6, 11-3, 12-10) over Vikram Bhamre.
Cruikshank also earned his second win of the day in four games (11-9, 11-5, 17-19, 11-9) over Varun Kandula with Kearns defeating Zachary Slonim in four games at seventh position (10-12, 11-7, 11-3, 11-8).
With the team score at four all, Gilman rallied from a 2-1 deficit to win the final two games over Omar Cochiwala and take the match in five, 9-11, 11-4, 9-11, 11-5, and 11-6.
Though the team schedule has ended, selected Rams will be a part of the CSA Individual & Doubles Championships, which will be held, March 8-10, in Philadelphia.
