Although Cornell squash is considered to be one of the top programs in the country, the men’s and women’s teams are often underestimated on a Division I campus driven by traditional contact sports. Both squads will work hard to maintain their No. 6 preseason national ranking and gain the respect they deserve from fellow Cornell students.

“As a sport, not a lot of people have been exposed to squash, but it is a really exciting and fast-paced game,” said junior co-captain McKay Claghorn.

“Our fans are really great and they bring a lot of energy and contribute to the hype surrounding competitions,” said sophomore co-captain Lauren Sachvie. “With that being said, we always love to have more support.”

The men welcome back all 11 players from the 2008-09 team that took part in the national championship tournament, while the women return nine of last year’s 10 participants.

Senior co-captain Chris Sachvie, currently 14th in the nation, sophomore Alex Domenick, ranked 19th nationally, sophomore Thomas Spettigue and junior Will Hartigan, ranked 20th, will anchor positions in the top-five.

On the women’s end, junior Jen Gemmell, freshman Jaime Laird and sophomore Shivangi Paranjpe will fill the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 spots. Senior captains Liza Stokes and Sachvie will head up the four and five positions, respectively.

“We are extremely competitive within our team, and I believe this will translate on the court,” said sophomore Clare Berner.

This evening, the men host Western Ontario and the women match up against Stanford to kick off 2009-10 season play at the Belkin International Squash Courts. The men and women will continue the weekend with matches against Ivy rivals Penn at 2 p.m. on Saturday and Princeton at noon on Sunday.

“We finished one spot above Stanford last year with two 6-3 wins in the season, but the result was a bit misleading because the matches really could have gone either way and were extremely close,” Berner said. “It is anyone’s match on any given day.”