Virginia Faces Top-20 Opponents to Close Regular Season
Watch Harvard | Women – Live Scoring | Men – Live Scoring
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia men’s and women’s squash teams will conclude the regular season on the road this weekend as the women’s team faces four programs ranked in the top-20 nationally while the men’s team will compete in three top-20 matchups.
Virginia will open competition at 5 p.m. on Friday (Jan. 31) against top-ranked and defending men’s and women’s national champion Harvard at the Murr Center Squash Courts in Boston. The Cavalier women’s team will remain at Harvard for a pair of neutral site matches on Saturday against Middlebury at 11 a.m. and Williams at 6 p.m. The UVA men’s team will face Middlebury at 1:30 p.m. at Harvard on Saturday. Virginia will close the regular season on Sunday with the women’s team traveling to Medford, Mass., for a 10 a.m. match against Tufts at its new home squash courts and the men’s team facing MIT at the Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center in Cambridge, Mass., at 11 a.m.
How to Follow
Virginia’s match against the Crimson will be streamed on ESPN3. Fans can follow the action with live scoring, linked at VirginiaSports.com. Updates throughout the matches will be provided on the team’s official Twitter account (@UVASquash).
A Tough Field of Ahead
The No. 10 Virginia women’s team will face No. 1 Harvard, No. 12 Williams, No. 15 Middlebury and No. 19 Tufts over the weekend, while the No. 9 Cavalier men’s team will compete against No. 1 Harvard, No. 17 MIT and No. 20 Middlebury.
The Undefeated Crimson
• The Cavaliers will face Harvard for the first time on Friday as Virginia takes on the 2019 defending national champions on their home court.
• Both Harvard programs hold a 7-0 record for the season.
The Middlebury Panthers
• Middlebury is tied for 20th in the men’s poll and ranks 15th nationally on the women’s side.
• The Panther men’s team enters the season with a 4-7 record, including a two-match winning streak over Bowdoin and Colby last weekend. Middlebury will play a men’s match against MIT on Friday, prior to facing the Cavaliers on Saturday.
• Middlebury holds a 5-5 record on the women’s side. The team went 8-1 in its meetings against Bowdoin and Colby.
• This is the fifth meeting between the Middlebury women’s program and the Cavaliers.
• The Cavaliers have won all four matches, including two 9-0 wins during the 2018-19 season.
• The men’s team is 2-0 against the Panthers, topping Middlebury 5-4 during both meetings.
The Ephs Women
• Williams enters the weekend with a 12-3 record, winning its last nine matches.
• Additionally, the Ephs have swept their last three matches, topping Franklin and Marshall, St. Lawrence and Tufts 9-0.
• It’s the third meeting between the two teams as Virginia holds a 2-1 edge in the series.
• In the last meeting between the two programs, the Cavaliers swept the Ephs, 9-0, in a neutral site match in Annapolis.
• Williams will battle Harvard on Saturday, prior to its match against the Cavaliers.
A Look at the Jumbos
• No. 19 Tufts enter the weekend with a 5-5 record.
• The Jumbos have won one of their last four games. After suffering back-to-back losses to Stanford and Bates, the Jumbos defeated Dickinson 7-2 on the road. Tufts dropped 9-0 in its last match to Williams at Harvard’s Murr Center Squash Courts.
• Tufts will open its new facility on Saturday, hosting Connecticut prior to its match against the Cavaliers.
• This weekend is the first meeting between the two programs.
MIT Men
• MIT has won four of its last five matches, defeating four top-25 programs in then-ranked No. 24 Bowdoin College, No. 25 Bates, No. 25 St. Lawrence and No. 20 Colby.
• The Engineers hold an 11-5 record on the year and rank 17th in the CSA poll.
• The Cavaliers are 2-0 against the Engineers, winning the last meeting 5-4 during the 2019 Mid-Atlantic Team Tournament at the McArthur Squash Center in Charlottesville.
Closing the Season at Home
• Virginia played its home finale on Sunday (Jan. 26), recording a split against Columbia. The men’s team topped the then-ranked No. 11 Lions 6-3 for the program’s first win against the team.
• With the win, the men’s team remained undefeated in matches at the McArthur Squash Center and moved to an 11-3 record on the season.
• The women’s team fell 5-4 to then-ranked No. 7 Columbia.
• That match was the first home loss of the season for the women’s team. The women enter the weekend with an 8-4 record.