CH racquetmen overmatched against national power Haverford

by Tom Utescher
Posted 1/27/22

In this and many other sports, the truly dominant teams feature a core of year-round players.

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CH racquetmen overmatched against national power Haverford

Posted

In the past, it was possible to mold a group of all-around athletes into a highly successful squash team. Now, in this and many other sports, the truly dominant teams feature a core of year-round players.

This is especially true in a skills-specific sport like squash, and the effects could be seen in last Thursday as Springside Chestnut Hill Academy hosted Haverford School.

A Main Line stronghold in the sport for many years and a national power this winter, Haverford has put together a team deep in talent that includes many primary squash players. The Fords took a 9-0 decision at SCH last week, winning every match in three straight games. They rose to an overall record of 4-0 while SCH came away with a 2-2 mark. Previously, the Blue Devils had lost to Penn Charter and had beaten Malvern Prep and La Salle High School.

The SCH team members tend to play a variety of sports. Senior Drew Bown, for example, is a standout in lacrosse who plays club ball outside of school. He also happens to be Springside Chestnut Hill's number one squash player this season.

His opponent last Thursday, sophomore Drew Glaser, ascended to the Haverford varsity in 2019, when he was still in eighth grade and was ranked number one in the nation in the Under-15's.

Bown won more points in his match than a number of his teammates did in theirs, but he was still overcome by Glaser, 11-7, 11-5, 11-5.

The national governing body of the sport, US Squash, compiles national rankings and also issues a "national squash rating" for each player. As longtime SCH head coach Mike Jefferys noted, Glaser's current rating of 5.98 is close to the 6.0 mark at which players are generally considered to be ready for professional tournament competition.

Going down the match sheet last week, the Fords kept up their level of play. At number two, visiting junior Owen Yu defeated SCH senior Chase Newbold, 11-1, 11-4, 11-1, and Haverford's senior number three Grady Herbert won 11-1, 11-1, 11-2 over Blue Devils freshman Owen Franzen.

Herbert's sophomore brother, Graeme, won 11-2, 11-2, 11-3 in the fourth flight against another SCH ninth-grader, Patrick Gaghan.

Junior Danny O'Connor, at number five, was the only player for the home side to take a game past the regulation limit of 11 points (games must be won by a two-point margin). He lost by scores of 11-5, 13-11, 11-6 to freshman Jamie Stait, the son of Haverford head coach Alex Stait.

The Blue Devils' other Gaghan brother, Jack (a junior), went down to sophomore Preston Wu, 11-2, 11-6, 11-2.

Two sophomores engaged in the seventh flight, where it was visitor Render Ford over the hosts' Jack Cook, 11-7, 11-4, 11-7. At number eight the scores were 11-2, 11-4, 11-5 as Haverford freshman Xan Matuch prevailed against SCH sophomore Jack Larkin. The ninth flight featured a pair of juniors, and here the Blue Devils' Will Kelly fell to George Vollmer of Haverford, 11-4, 11-4, 11-4.