The 15th-ranked Navy squash team closed out the first half of its season by picking up road victories over the weekend against #27 Hamilton College (1-4), #26 St. Lawrence (2-3) and #19 Rochester (2-4). The Mids swept Hamilton College 9-0 on Friday, followed by an 8-1 victory Saturday at St. Lawrence and closed things out with a hard-fought 7-2 win at Rochester on Sunday. 

The Midshipmen are now 15-0, tying the school record for the best start to a season set by the 2012-13 squad en route to a 25-9 record. This year's team is just the fourth in program history to open its season with at least 14-consecutive wins and the first since the 2015-16 team started its year 14-0 (2012-13, 15-0 / 2025-26, 15-0 / 1960-61, 14-0 / 2015-16, 14-0).

Weekend Highlights
• Eight players among the ladder played in all three matches with 6 of the 8 finishing the weekend with undefeated 3-0 marks.
• Among the six was Johan Hodgson (Fr / Riverside, Conn.) who made his season debut after rehabbing a leg injury over the last handful of months. He settled into the #4 spot on the ladder and earned an 11-0, 11-5, 11-6 sweep over Jacob Li of Hamilton College in his first-collegiate match.
• Wenqing Tang (So / Villanova, Pa.), the Mids' #1 player, extended his personal winning streak to 17-consecutive matches dating back to last season. Tang closed out 2024-25 by winning his final 5 matches and is 12-0 this season. He stands 36-4 in just he second year at the Academy.
• Meanwhile, team captain Alexander Orr (Sr / Haverford, Pa.) pushed his season record to 11-0 and 65-35 over his career. He is now tied with Jamie Kjorlien (2015-19) and Michael Kacergis (2016-20) for 19th on the Mids' all-time wins list. Additionally, he is 5 wins from becoming only the 13th player in school history to reach the 70-win milestone.
• Ramsay Killinger (Jr / Wyndmoor, Pa.) continues to push towards the 50-win mark for his career, as he stands 44-22. He needs 6 wins to become the 40th player in program history to reach 50 wins.
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• Navy easily cruised past Hamilton College in a 9-0 victory, winning 6 of the 9 matches in three games.
• With its win, Navy pushed its series advantage to 19-0.
• The Navy-Hamilton College match marked the first time the two programs had met since 2022.
• Meanwhile, it was just the fifth time Navy has played at Hamilton College and first since 2012.

• While Navy captured an 8-1 win over St. Lawrence, the Saints gave the Mids a run for their money.
• Four of the top-5 spots on the ladder were decided in extra frames, including the top 2. Tang won a seesaw battle against Mina Yousef at #1 by capturing a 12-10 decision in the fifth game. Christian Graziano (Fr / Greenwich, Conn.), meanwhile, had to rally in his match against Emirhan Sen at #2, winning the fourth (11-2) and fifth (11-7) games to seal the victory. 
• The Mids now lead the series against the Saints 8-4, including a 2-1 mark in matches played in Canton, N.Y.

• Navy capped the weekend on Sunday by playing its third match in its third different city.
• Navy defeated a talented Rochester squad 7-2 in what marked the program's first win over the Yellow Jackets since 2007. Rochester entered the match having won 5 in a row against the Mids.
• Navy is now 26-6 all-time against Rochester, including 8-2 in matches played on the Yellow Jackets' home courts.
• Two key matches went down to the wire as #8 Avinash Uppuluri (So / Short Hills, N.J.) and #9 Ramsay Killinger captured gritty wins for the Mids. Uppuluri found himself in a 2-1 deficit, but regrouped to win the final games 11-1 and 11-9. Meanwhile, Killinger and Zhouran Xu traded wins before Killinger put it away in the fifth 11-5.

What's Ahead
• Navy will be off the next four weeks to focus on final exams and observe the holiday break
• The Mids will return to action Jan. 8 when it travels to Poughkeepsie, N.Y. to play #33 Vassar. It will be the first match of a four-day Northeast trip for the Midshipmen who will also play at #17 Middlebury (Jan. 9), at #14 Amherst (Jan. 10) and at #12 Williams (Jan. 11)

Navy 9, Hamilton 0
1 | Wenqing Tang (N) def Jacob Shulman (H) // 11-3, 11-5, 11-8
2 | Christian Graziano (N) def Atreyus Bhavsar (H) // 11-5, 11-3, 11-5
3 | Alexander Orr (N) def Tobey Suratt (H) // 11-1, 11-3, 1-1 ret.
4 | Johan Hodgson (N) def Jacob Li (H) // 11-0, 11-5, 11-6
5 | Michael Tierney Jr. (N) def Joey Applebaum (H) // 10-12, 11-2, 11-5, 11-4
6 | Matthew Kang (N) def Lucas Walden (H) // 11-5, 10-12, 11-2, 11-6
7 | Avinash Uppuluri (N) def William Gianopulos (H) // 11-5, 10-12, 11-2, 11-6
8 | Ramsay Killinger (N) def James Merrill  (H) // 12-10, 11-3, 11-4
9 | Turner Wolf (N) def Jacob Stoffman (H) // 11-7, 11-1, 11-8
EXH | Sean Wu (N) def Arjun Ramdas (H) // 9-11, 11-2, 11-1, 11-4

Navy 8, St. Lawrence 1
1 | Wenqing Tang (N) def Mina Yousef (SL) // 1-19, 7-11, 11-7, 11-13, 12-10
2 | Christian Graziano (N) def Emirhan Sen (SL) // 11-6, 9-11, 6-11, 11-2, 11-7
3 | Alexander Orr (N) def Miguel Posada Villa (SL) // 12-10, 5-11, 11-4, 11-3
4 | Johan Hodgson (N) def Alexander Scott (SL) // 11-3, 11-9, 11-6
5 | Patrick Walford (SL) def Andrew Ko (N) //  13-15, 11-7, 11-9, 11-7
6 | Michael Tierney Jr. (N) def Harrison Callaway (SL) // 11-5, 12-10, 11-8
7 | Matthew Kang (N) def Gavin Cassidy (SL) // 11-8, 11-3, 11-7
8 | Avinash Uppuluri (N) def Dmitry Stepanenko (SL) // 11-5, 11-5, 11-3
9 | Ramsay Killinger (N) def Milo Stephenson (SL) // 11-5, 11-9, 11-2
EXH | Sean Wu (N) def Luke Black (SL) // 11-3, 11-5, 11-3

Navy 7, Rochester 2
1 | Wenqing Tang (N) def Gilberto Noe Aceves Moreno (R) // 11-8, 11-4, 8-11, 11-8
2 | Dhirren Rajarathinam (R) def Christian Graziano (N) // 11-4, 11-8, 11-7
3 | Alexander Orr (N) def Arjith Mathew (R) // 11-5, 11-7, 14-12
4 | Johan Hodgson (N) def Kareem Azzam (R) // 11-7, 4-3 ret.
5 | Andrew Ko (N) def Vandrick Inman-Benavente (R) //  12-10, 11-6, 12-10
6 | Thomas Valderrama (R) Michael Tierney Jr. (N) // 11-7, 11-5, 11-2
7 | Matthew Kang (N) def Preston Wu (R) // 11-9, 11-9, 11-5
8 | Avinash Uppuluri (N) def Karim Moataz (R) // 11-8, 9-11, 7-11, 11-1, 11-9
9 | Ramsay Killinger (N) def Zhouran Xu (R) // 11-3, 10-12, 11-4, 6-11, 11-5
EXH | Turner Wolf (N) def Sam Knoll (R) // 11-4, 11-1, 11-4


### Go Navy ###