After opening the 2021-22 season over the weekend with five wins, the Navy squash team (5-0) will look to parlay that momentum in Wednesday's home opener against seventh-ranked Virginia (0-0). The Mids and Cavaliers are slated to play at the newly-renovated Prager Family Squash Center beginning at 6:00 pm. There will be a short dedication ceremony held prior to the start of the match.

Navy's Projected Lineup
Player (Yr / Hometown / 2021-22 record / career record)
1. Millen Randell (Jr / Chicago, Ill. / 5-0 / 16-17)
2. Ryan York (Sr / Hunt Valley, Md. / 4-0 / 26-22)
3. Matt Wang (Fr / Malvern, Pa. / 5-0 / 5-0)
4. Henry Sparkman (So / Darien, Conn. / 5-0 / 5-2)
5. Ben Korn (Sr / Stevenson, Md. / 4-0 / 28-20)
6. Lucas Spiro (Fr / Buffalo, N.Y. / 5-0 / 5-0)
7. Tommy Rankin (Jr / Atlanta, Ga. / 4-0 / 11-18)
8. Gus Prager (Sr / New York, N.Y. / 4-0 / 17-18)
9. Ben Balser (Jr / Brooklyn, N.Y. / 5-0 / 5-0)
--- Exhibition
10. Will Hyer (Sr / Bridgehampton, N.Y. / 4-0 / 7-0)

Weekly Rewind
• No. 21 Navy opened the season with a strong performance in Chicago over the weekend where it captured 9-0 victories over Chicago, Indiana, Washington University in St. Louis, Ohio State and Northwestern.
• While the Mids remained unbeaten against Chicago (3-0), WUSL (3-0) and Northwestern (13-0), it was the inaugural meeting between Navy and Ohio State.
• All 10 players on the ladder saw action and earned wins for the Mids, including Millen Randell,  Matt Wang, Henry Sparkman, Lucas Spiro and Ben Balser who went 5-0 on the weekend.
• Among the 45 individual matches played over the weekend, Navy surrendered just a single game - a 3-1 win by Ben Korn over Ohio State's Blaze Fletcher-Broderson ({10},2,4,8).
• Freshmen Matt Wang and Lucas Spiro, along with junior Ben Balser earned their first-career victories and all three accomplished it in the Mids' 9-0 sweep against Chicago in the season opener. Wang, swept Ishaan Patel (2,0,5) at the No. 3 position, Spiro picked up a win over Craigin Maloney (3,3,5) at No. 5 and Balser, who joined the team this season, dealt Seha Choi a 3-0 loss (2,3,2).
• Sophomore Henry Sparkman also earned his first-collegiate victory by scoring a 3-0 win over Jingyu Cai of Chicago (2,5,3). Sparkman made his collegiate debut a year ago, but he and his Navy teammates were limited to just a pair of appearances against Virginia.

More On Virginia
• Wednesday's match against Navy officially kicks off Virginia's season in what will be a 15-match regular-season for the Cavs.
• Following its match against Navy, Virginia's next five matches feature teams all ranked among the top 9 - #8 Yale (11-13), #6 Columbia (11-14), #1 Penn (11-19), #3 Princeton (11-20) and #9 Cornell (11-21).
• Virginia played just two squash matches a year ago - both against Navy and both were contested in Charlottesville. The Cavs defeated Navy 6-3 and 9-0.
• Virginia put together a 19-5 record in 2019-20 and defeated fifth-seeded Rochester to win the Potter Cup consolation final and finish fifth at the College Squash Association Team Championship. The 19 wins were a program best, while the win over Rochester marked the Cavs' first victory over a team ranked in the top five. As freshmen, Aly Hussein and Omar El Torkey garnered CSA All-America recognition, while El Torkey was named both the Mid-Atlantic Squash Conference Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year.
• A program elevated to varsity status in 2017, Virginia is led by head coach Mark Allen.

The Series
• Navy holds an 9-3 advantage in the series that began on Jan. 2, 2003 with a 9-0 Navy victory.
• The Mids won the first 9 matches in the series before the Cavaliers broke the streak on Nov. 13, 2019, with an 8-1 victory over the Mids in Charlottesville.

What's Ahead
• Four matches are on tap for the Mids this weekend when they play host to its annual round robin.
• Navy opens tournament action on Friday against #31 Fordham (7:00 pm), play Boston U. (12:00 pm) and #30 Haverford (5:00 pm) on Saturday and close out the weekend against #32 Denison (10:00 am) on Sunday.

### Go Navy ###