After a wild week that saw three matches canceled and another put together at the last minute, the 25th-ranked Navy squash team (10-5) will push ahead with a pair of matches this week.The Mids begin the week on the road with a 5:30 pm match in Philadelphia on Wednesday against ninth-ranked Drexel (5-3). Navy will then return to Annapolis to play a match at home for the first time since  Nov. 14 when it plays host to 22nd-ranked Bowdoin (3-3) on Friday at 3:30 pm.

Navy's Projected Lineup
Player (Yr / Hometown / 2021-22 record / career record)
1. Ryan York (Sr / Hunt Valley, Md. / 11-3 / 33-25)
2. Millen Randell (Jr / Chicago, Ill. / 10-5 / 21-22)
3. Matt Wang (Fr / Malvern, Pa. / 11-4 / 11-4)
4. Ben Korn (Sr / Stevenson, Md. / 11-3 / 35-23)
5. Henry Sparkman (So / Darien, Conn. / 7-4 / 7-6)
6. Lucas Spiro (Fr / Buffalo, N.Y. / 10-5 / 10-5)
7. Tommy Rankin (Jr / Atlanta, Ga. / 9-4 / 16-22)
8. Gus Prager (Sr / New York, N.Y. / 10-4 / 23-22)
9. Ben Balser (Jr / Brooklyn, N.Y. / 9-5 / 9-5)
--- Exhibition
10. Will Hyer (Sr / Bridgehampton, N.Y. / 7-0 / 10-0)

How to Follow
• A live scoring link for both matches will be available on the Navy Athletics website and via Club Locker.
• Fans can also watch a live video stream of both matches via NavySports.com

A Look Back
Hamilton College Match
• The Mids boarded a plane headed for Massachusetts last Friday morning in anticipation of playing 16th-ranked Williams on Saturday afternoon and No. 24 Middlebury on Sunday morning. However, minutes before taking flight, Navy head coach Tyler Osborne received word from Williams that it was forced to bow out of competition this weekend due to COVID. Left scrambling, Osborne collaborated with Hamilton College head coach Jamie King, athletic trainers from the institutions and officials from Williams to put together the impromptu match between Navy and Hamilton College, who was originally scheduled to play Williams on Friday evening.
• Despite the uncertainty, Navy kept its composure and recorded a 9-0 sweep against Hamilton College.
• Senior team captain Ryan York made his first appearance this season at the No. 1 position on the ladder where he posted a 3-1 victory over Tate Suratt.
• Senior Ben Korn swept Ashby Howard at the #4 position (11-8, 11-9, 11-5), as he and York lead the team with 11 wins apiece this season.
• Millen Randell allowed just 3 points in his match at #2 to Waleed Nisar, pitching shutouts in the first and third games en route to a 3-0 win.
• Matt Wang, Tommy Rankin and first-year player Ben Balser all lost the opening game of their respective matches, but rallied to win out in four games apiece.
• While Randell and Wang reached the 10-win milestone for the season, so, too, did rookie Lucas Spiro (Buffalo, N.Y.) who earned a 15-13, 11-7, 11-2 win over Nicholas Carabatsos to add his name to the list.
• Senior Gus Prager is now just one win shy of 10 for the season after scoring a 3-1 decision over Simon Muller at #8, while Henry Sparkman has overcome injury to improve to 7-3 thanks to a 3-0 win against William Rice Friday evening.

Middlebury Match
• Navy dropped a hard-fought 6-3 decision to No. 24 Middlebury (2-5) last Sunday at the Bostwick Family Squash Center Courts in Middlebury, Vt. The Panthers built a 2-0 lead and despite Navy twice getting to within a match of tying (2-1 and 4-3), Middlebury would never trail in the match.
• Seven of the nine matches went either four or five games with Middlebury winning six of those seven.
• Three of the nine matches were decided in five games with Middlebury winning two of the three.
• Tommy Rankin gave Navy its first win of the day and earned his second win of the weekend with a gutty performance against Middlebury junior PK Keller at No. 7. Keller won the first two games 14-12 and 11-6 before Ranking rallied and won three in a row to secure the 3-2 victory.
• Matt Wang also won his second match of the weekend with an 11-9, 11-9, 11-9 win over rookie Will Lichstein at No. 3. The win also gave Wang a team-high tying 11th win of the season.
• Wang and Gus Prager won back-to-back matches to trip Middlebury's lead to just one (4-3) with a pair of matches remaining.
• Like Rankin and Wang, Prager put together a 2-0 mark for the weekend, securing his 10th win of the season with an 11-7, 11-7, 11-9 victory over junior Alex Stimpson at No. 8.
• Ben Korn and Millen Randell fell just shy in their respective matches, as Korn was stopped in five games at No. 4 by Nate Moll and Randell all came up short in a five-gamer to Nathan Feinstein at No. 2

Navy vs. Drexel: The Series
• Drexel holds an 8-5 advantage in a series that began on Dec. 10, 2010, with a 9-0 Navy victory in Philadelphia, Pa.
• Navy won the first 5 matches of the series, but since elevating its program to a varsity sport, the Dragons have won each of the last 8 meetings.
• Navy's last win in the series was a 5-4 decision at the CSA Championship in Boston, Mass. on Feb. 16, 2014.
• This will be the sixth time the two programs have played one another at Drexel's home facility where the Dragons hold a 3-2 decision.
• The last time Navy won at Drexel was on Dec. 7, 2012, in a 7-2 victory.

More On Drexel
• Eleventh-year head coach John White has led his Dragons to a 5-3 record this season with wins over Chatham (9-0), Franklin & Marshall (9-0), Dickinson (9-0), Williams (8-1) and Amherst (9-0). they have losses to Penn (9-0), Columbia (5-4) and Yale (7-2).
• Drexel plays host to No. 2 Harvard Tuesday afternoon before welcoming the Midshipmen to the Kline & Specter Squash Center on Wednesday.
• Anchoring the team is graduate student Dylan Kachur who has amassed a 6-2 mark at the No. 2 position. Meanwhile senior Filip Krueger and senior Noel Heaton, the No. 1 and 4 players respectively, have put together 5-3 marks.

Navy vs. Bowdoin: The Series
• Navy owns a 32-9 advantage against Bowdoin in a series that began on Dec. 11, 1971, with a 9-0 Navy victory in Brunswick, Maine.
• Navy won the first 21 matches in the series before giving way to the Polar Bears for their first win (5-4) on Jan. 16, 1998.
• Navy heads into the weekend having won 5 in a row against Bowdoin with the Polar Bear's last win in the series coming by way of a 6-3 decision on Jan. 19, 2008.
• Friday's match will mark the first time in series history that Bowdoin has played at Navy.

More On Bowdoin
• After dropping its first three matches of the season (Brown 5-4, Bates 6-3, Trinity 8-1), Bowdoin has won three in a row (Amherst 6-3, Hobart 9-0, Dickinson 7-2).
• The Polar Bears will meet Colby at home on Wednesday before making the trip to Annapolis on Friday afternoon.
• Senior Carson Claar us undefeated (6-0) at the No. 6 spot, while sophomore Neil Bam owns a 5-1 mark at the No. 8 position.

What's Ahead
• Following this week's action, Navy will return to Annapolis to play its final two home matches of the season.
• Navy will play host to No. 20 Dickinson (1-6) on Friday, Jan. 28 at 5:30 pm in a match that was postponed from a week ago due to healthy and safety protocols from within the Dickinson program.
• The Mids will close out their home slate on Sunday, Jan. 30 with a 2:00 pm battle against No. 14 Franklin & Marshall (4-6).

### Go Navy ###