Led by seventh-year head coach Tyler Osborne, the 20th-ranked Navy squash team is slated to kick off the 2024-25 season this weekend with a pair of matches played at Denison. The Mids open play against the host Denison Big Red on Saturday at 1:30 pm at the Denison Squash Courts before closing out with a 9:30 am match against Pitt on Sunday. Live scoring will be available on the Navy Athletics website (Navysports.com), as well as Club Locker, while Saturday's match against Denison will be live streamed.

Navy's Projected Lineup
Player (Yr / Hometown / 2024-25 record / career record)
1 |  Matt Wang (Sr / Malvern, Pa. / 0-0 / 55-41)
2 |  Wenqing Tang (Fr / Villanova, Pa. / 0-0 / 0-0)
3 |  Alexander Orr (Jr / Haverford, Pa. / 0-0 / 40-23)
4 |  Matt Kang (So / Malvern, Pa. / 0-0 / 13-13)
5 |  Lucas Spiro (Sr / Buffalo, N.Y. / 0-0 / 45-45)
6 |  Tighe Mullarkey (So, Jr / Locust Valley, N.Y. / 0-0 / 28-14)
7 |  Ramsay Killinger (So / Wyndmoor, Pa. / 0-0 / 18-11)
8 |  Michael Tierney Jr. (Fr / Berwyn, Pa. / 0-0 / 0-0)
9 |  Hudson Poirier (Fr / Wellesley, Mass. / 0-0 / 0-0)
--- |  Eli Levy (Fr / Williamstown, Mass. / 0-0 / 0-0)
--- |  Sean Wu (So / Princeton, N.J. / 0-0 / 15-13)
--- |  Holden Woodward (So / Richmond, Va. / 0-0 / 3-25)
Inj |  Avinash Uppuluri (Fr / Short Hills, N.J. / 0-0 / 0-0)

The top-two positions on the ladder were set on Oct. 18 following the annual week-long Barb Tournament that was won by senior Matt Wang. The two-time First-Team All-Mid-Atlantic Squash Conference selection scored a 3-0 victory over rookie Wenqing Tang in what was Wang's third-consecutive appearance in the finals. Wang lost last year's championship match to 2023 grad and team captain Millen Randell, but bounced back to win last year's competition with a 3-1 victory over 2024 grad and team captain Henry Sparkman.

Established in 1957 by the late Admiral Eugene Fluckey, a Medal of Honor recipient, the Barb has seen 43 different midshipmen win the coveted trophy.  Seventeen men have claimed ownership of the trophy multiple times with six players (Spencer Wall 84-86, Jamie Slough 92-94, Andy McCann 00-02, Tucker George 05-08, Andrew McGuinness 12, 14-15, Jack Lentz 18-20) winning it three times. Wang will receive a ships clock at the Prizes and Awards ceremony during Commissioning Week and his name will be engraved on the Barb Trophy.

More on the Mids
• Navy finished the 2023-24 campaign with a 15-15 record that included a 2-1 mark at the Collegiate Squash Association Team Championship and a #22 national ranking. 
• Navy graduated just one player off last year's squad, team captain Henry Sparkman, who played primarily the #2 position on the ladder and finished the year 9-20.
• Senior Matt Wang returns as Navy's #1 player ... he produced a 16-16 record overall, including a 3-1 mark at the CSA National Collegiate Individual Championshiup where he won the consolation finals.
• Ramsey Killinger paced the Mids a year ago with his 18-11 record as a rookie, while Alexander Orr fought through a shoulder injury to post a 17-12 record. The year prior, Orr turned in a 23-11 record, producing the most wins by a Navy player since the 2012-13 campaign (27 by Bill Kacergis and Mitch Bottini / 24 by John Richey / 23 by Hunter Bouchard and Andrew McGuinness), as well as the the most by a Navy freshman since Hunter Beck amassed a 23-7 record in 2010-11.
• Navy added five freshmen to its roster this season - Eli Levy, Hudson Poirier, Winston Tang, Michael Tierney Jr. and Avinash Uppuluri - with 3 currently among Navy's nine-man ladder.
• Lucas Spiro serves as Navy's team captain and joins Matt Wang as the two senior members on the team. The remaining members of the team are made up of 1 junior, 5 sophomores and 5 freshmen.
• Navy begins the season ranked #20 in the College Squash Association Preseasons Rankings released on Oct. 25.

What's Ahead
• Navy will return home next weekend to play host to its annual Veterans Day Weekend round robin where a combined seven men's teams will play in the three-day tournament that begins Friday evening (Nov. 8) and will be staged at both the Prager Family Squash Facility in Halsey Field House and the Bancroft Hall Squash Courts.

### Go Navy ###