After Struggles at Nationals, Rye Squash Pivots Focus to FairWest League Title
The Rye Boys Squash team only has one more game on the schedule for 2024-25, the FairWest League title game against StreetSquash on Thursday, February 27. They will look to turn a #1 overall seed in league play into a much-coveted FairWest League championship. This game comes on the heels of a difficult yet encouraging showing at nationals for the group, which ended the season at 10-3.
The team traveled to Philadelphia last weekend (February 21-23, 2025) for the national tournament as one of 112 teams competing. Their excellent regular season led them to a placement in Division 3 – a step up in competition from prior years. Rye struggled to an 0-4 record, although they kept all the matches close, including three 4-3 defeats.
“We had some close losses during the tournament but the team played well against tough opponents and had a lot of fun,” Head Coach Quan Hyunh told MyRye.com on Wednesday. “The highlight was junior Michael Talbott’s performances in both of his matches, which he won against players that were rated higher than him.”
Talbott only played in two of Rye’s four matches, but forged comebacks in both from the #7 position. He upset his opponent on Loomis Chaffee on February 21 3-1 (8-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-5), getting stronger as the match progressed. He did the same against Bronxville the following day, overcoming a 2-0 deficit to win the final three games 12-10, 11-7, 11-4.
Other standout individuals were sophomore Charlie Rodilosso (#1) and senior co-captain Andrew Chun (#2), who both went 4-0 across their four matches (along with 4-3 defeats to Loomis Chaffee and Bronxville, Rye lost to Conestoga 5-2 and 4-3 to the Hill School). Chun finishes his four-year career at nationals with an overall 14-2 record.
Including nationals, five of Rye’s seven losses on the season were by a 4-3 score, indicating that they were on the brink of even more than a still impressive ten wins. The Garnets will have a chance to make it eleven on Thursday evening as they play for the FairWest Cup and league championship at 6:00pm against StreetSquash at Chelsea Piers Connecticut.
