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In its second season under head coach John Illig, the Bates College men's squash team duplicated its finish from the 2002 season. Illig, who also coached the women to their best finish in 2002 and 2003, led the Bobcats into the Hoehn Division of the National Intercollegiate Squash Racquets Association (NISRA) team championships for the third year in a row. The 12-7 squad once again impressed by finishing 14th, and had peaked at a 12th-place ranking in the country during the year. The Bobcats won the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin title by sweeping Colby in two matches and defeating Bowdoin, 7-2, in the only match between the two schools. Four of their 12 season victories came by 9-0 scores.
The Bobcats' future is bright, with all but two of players returning from last year. For the third consecutive year, co-captain Ben Schippers '04 (Brooklyn, N.Y.) will be the No. 1 player. His most dramatic win came over the U.S. Naval Academy, at the Team Nationals, in which the team score was knotted at 4-4 with his match yet to begin. After losing the first two games, Schippers won the next three to win his match and give Bates the win to lift the Bobcats to a 14th-place finish in the national rankings. Co-captain Chad Mountain '04 (Greenwich, Conn.) has played consistently at the top of the line-up for the last three years. Also returning is last year's No. 4 player, Rob Weller '05 (Penn Valley, Pa.), who is also a member of the tennis team. In addition to returning to the squash courts, last year's team MVP, Alex Wolff '05 (Lincoln, Mass.), will captain the soccer team as well. Guillermo Moronta '06 (Cambridge, Mass.), the first collegiate product of the Squashbusters program, will play an important role in the upcoming season.
Bates posted wins last season against prominent schools such as Stanford, Colgate, Navy, Hobart, Bowdoin, Franklin & Marshall, Colby, Wesleyan, Rochester and MIT. Bates also defeated top-ranked Princeton, which played only a couple of their regulars in the match.
The men's and women's squash teams got a new home in January 2004 with the opening of the Bates Squash Center. The facility, located a short drive from campus at 56 Alfred Plourde Parkway, comprises five international courts. The Bobcats finished the season 3-1 in the new facility, with the only loss coming to fifth-ranked Dartmouth. |
