Less than 24 hours after upsetting second-seeded Brown in the opening round of the Summers Division of the 2022 Collegiate Squash Association (CSA) National Collegiate Team Championship, seventh-seeded Navy (14-12) rallied to knock off third-seeded Amherst 5-4 Saturday evening in the semifinals at the Penn Squash Center. Navy won three of the final four matches, including wins by Matt Wang (#3 / Fr / Malvern, Pa.) and Henry Sparkman (#5 / Darien, Conn.) in the fnal two matches to secure the Mids' victory over the Mammoths (11-9).

The Mids, who have won both matches in the Summers Division by 5-4 decisions, will face fifth-seeded Tufts (8-6) in the finals on Sunday at 2:30 pm. The Jumbos earned their way into the finals after knocking off fourth-seeded Bates in the opening round (6-3) and top-seeded St. Lawrence in the semis (5-4). This will be the first meeting between the two programs since Dec. 1, 2012, when scored an 8-1 victory over the Jumbos. The two teams were due to open the 2022 calendar year with a match in Annapolis, however, due to health and safety protocols they were unable to meet.

Navy took a 2-1 advantage in Saturday's match thanks to a 3-0 sweep by Millen Randell (#2 / Jr / Chicago, Ill.) and a hard-fought five-gamer by rookie Lucas Spiro (#6 / Buffalo, N.Y.). Randell provided the Mids with their first win of the day, taking an 11-7, 11-5, 11-9 win over Adam Lichtmacher, who did not play in the regular-season matchup that saw Amherst win 6-3 in November.

After Amherst leveled the match with a 3-0 win by Andrew Leung at #8, Spiro took Nathaniel Mosse to five games, winning the fifth 12-10, to give Navy a 2-1 lead.

The Mammoths rallied around 3-0 wins by Robinson Armour and Pavan Nagaraj at the #1 and #9 positions, respectively, to take their first lead at 3-2.

Tommy Rankin (#8 / Jr / Atlanta, Ga.), who dropped a 3-1 decision to Mosse in the previous meeting, rolled past Matthew Granovsky for his second win of the tournament and pulled Navy even (3-3).

Amherst pulled ahead once again, riding an 11-7, 13-15, 11-7, 11-5 victory by Kedar Nagaraj at the #4 spot.

One of the most steady players for the Mids this season, Wang stepped onto the court knowing he was facing a must-win situation. Amherst's Neal Malani, who played the #1 position in the earlier meeting with the Mids and defeated Randell in that matchup, opened with an 11-9 victory in the first game. Wang, however, regrouped and went on to win three in a row and knotted the match at 4-4.

By the time Wang's match was completed, Sparkman had taken game one (11-9) against Abhimanyu Gupta, but was trailing 7-6 in the second. Gupta, who lost to Sparkman in three games in the November meeting, evened the match by taking the final four points of the second. Sparkman would once again pull ahead with an 11-7 win in the third, only to have Gupta again tie the match with an 11-9 game four victory. Sparkman jumped out to a 3-1 advantage in the fifth game and never looked back as he lifted the Mids to victory by way of an 11-7 win in the fifth.

Navy 5, Amherst 4
1 | Robinson Armour (A) def Ryan York (N) // 11-5, 11-8, 11-9
2 | Millen Randell (N) def Adam Lichtmacher (A) // 11-7, 11-5, 11-9
3 | Matt Wang (N) def Neal Malani (A) // 9-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-7
4 | Kedar Nagaraj (A) def Ben Korn (N) // 11-7, 13-15, 11-7, 11-5
5 | Henry Sparkman (N) def Abhimanyu Gupta (A) // 11-9, 6-11, 11-7, 9-11, 11-7
6 | Lucas Spiro (N) def Nathaniel Mosse (A) // 11-7, 11-6, 6-11, 15-17, 12-10
7 | Tommy Rankin (N) def Matthew Granovsky (A) // 11-8, 11-2, 11-8
8 | Andrew Leung (A) def Gus Prager (N) // 11-9, 11-7, 11-7
9 | Pavan Nagaraj (A) def Ben Balser (N) // 11-5, 11-6, 11-1

### Go Navy ###