PHILADELPHIA, PA – 14th-ranked University of Rochester men's squash fell to the 19th-ranked Middlebury College Panthers, 5-4, in a closely-contested battle in the quarterfinal round of the Hoehn Cup at the 2025 College Squash Divisional Championships at the Arlen Specter Squash Center.
 
Yash Fadte got the Yellowjackets out to an early lead, making quick work of Middlebury Nathan Feinstein at the No. 1 spot on the ladder, 11-4, 11-7, 11-4, but the Panthers took the next two matches to take a 2-1 lead after the opening round of play.
 
Both Jake Koeppel and Arnav Mandhana went the distance in their two matches, as Charlie Clifford and Koeppel went five games at the seven spot, as did Caleb Boateng and Mandhana at the fifth spot, but both Panthers would pull out victories in five.
 
Clifford after taking the second and third games against Koeppel, finished off the five-game win: 7-11, 11-7, 11-4, 5-11, 11-8, to level the match at one-all, before Boateng did the same at the No. 5 spot vs. Mandhana, topping the UR senior: 3-11, 11-7, 11-9, 9-11, 11-4.
 
With UR trailing 2-1, Omar Zakaria and William Lichstein played another five-game contest at the No. 2 spot, with Zakaria needing extra points to take the first and second games, but the Yellowjacket senior would level the match at two-all, winning the match after dropping games three and four: 12-10, 13-11, 4-11, 6-11, 11-4.
 
Theo Kogan retook the lead for Middlebury with a sweep of Thomas Valderrama at the No. 6 spot, 11-7, 11-7, 11-5, but Van Inman-Benavente bounced back from a second-game defeat to re-tie things heading into the final round of play.
 
At the No. 8 spot, Inman-Benavente topped Aditya Kothari, 11-8, 6-11, 11-9, 11-9, to tie things up at 3-3, while Dhirren Rajarathinam picked up UR's second sweep of the evening: 11-8, 11-3, 11-8, at the No. 3 spot, to set up a potential clincher.
 
However, the Panthers would snatch the potential victory away from UR with wins at the final two contests, as Gabe Feinstein swept Tom Whiteley at the No. 4 spot: 13-11, 12-10, 11-4, and David Zhao came up with the clincher at the No. 9 spot.
 
Facing off with Nic Gill with the match on the line, Zhao took the first two sets and then bounced back from a 12-14 defeat in the third game to finish off the upset for Middlebury: 11-6, 11-8, 12-14, 11-7.
 
With the win, Middlebury moves to 10-9 and advances to the Hoehn Cup Semifinals, where they'll face 13th-ranked Franklin & Marshall, while the Yellowjackets drop to 8-9 on the year and will head to the Hoehn Cup Consolation Bracket.
 
The 14th-ranked Yellowjackets are back in action at the CSA Divisional Team Championships on Saturday, March 1 in Philadelphia, PA at 6:00 p.m., taking on 18th-ranked Amherst in the Hoehn Cup Consolation Semifinals.