PHILADELPHIA – 13th-ranked MIT handed the University of Rochester squash team an 8-1 loss on the opening day of the College Squash Association Divisional Championships at the Arlen Specter Squash Center.
 
That score matches the winning margin the Engineers had earlier this season over Rochester
 
The Yellowjackets fall to 6-7 overall on the season with the quarterfinal loss in the Hoehn Cup (B Division) tournament. MIT, the bracket's top seed, moves on to Saturday's semifinals against fourth-seeded, who won a nail-biting match against fifth-seeded Middlebury by a 5-4 score.
 
Middlebury and Rochester will meet in the consolation round at 6 pm on Saturday. That matchup will be the third straight season the Panthers and Yellowjackets will play in the Hoehn Cup bracket, but the first of those three meetings that will be in the consolation round. UR is 3-1 all-time against Middlebury in varsity squash action.
 
URochester's lone win on Friday came from first-year Gilberto Aceves Moreno at the number one position, but unfortunately it came in the final match of the evening, after the Engineers had already clinched the victory. Aceves Moreno defeated Philip Hyun Su Price in four games, 11-4, 6-11, 11-5 and 11-5.
 
The opening wave went 3-0 in favor of the Engineers, but URochester was able to take games from their Engineer opponents at the two and eight positions.
 
MIT's opening point was earned by Rishabh Sharma in a 3-0 win (11-9, 11-8, 11-9) against UR first-year Arjith Mathew. At two, Dhirren Rajarathinam was level at 1-1 after two games against Ethan Chan, but the Engineer player secured 11-7 and 15-13 wins in games three and four to swipe the point.
 
Sean-Winston Luo topped Preston Wu in four games at number eight to put MIT up 3-0 in the early going. Luo won 11-4, 11-8, 8-11 and 11-6.
 
In wave two, it was matches three, four and nine. The four spot on the ladder finished first, with Mero Elmarassy winning a four-game battle against Kareem Azzam. After a marathon opening game went to Elmarassy 18-16, Azzam responded with an 11-6 win to even things up. The MIT player settled back in and captured the final two games, 11-6 and 11-8, to post the victory.
 
While that match was going, MIT's Mitav Nayak was working on posting a sweep over Victor Xu at number nine. Nayak earned the win by 11-6, 11-4 and 11-9 scores, clinching the team victory for the Engineers.
 
At number three, John Gunton held off a hard-charging Thomas Valderrama to make it 6-0 MIT on the scoreboard. Gunton looked poised for a sweep, winning the opening two games 11-8 and 11-7, but Valderrama stormed back with 11-5 and 12-10 wins to force a fifth game. The final game was back-and-forth, with Gunton ending up with an 11-8 triumph.
 
In the final set of matches, Isaac Torchinsky topped Karim Moataz 3-0 (11-4, 11-7, 11-3) at number six, while Zachary Starr also won in three games (11-6, 12-10, 11-5) against Van Inman-Benavente in the seven spot, before Aceves Moreno's number one win closed out the evening.