The Amherst College men's squash team began this season three months ago in Philadelphia and the Mammoths will return to the Penn Squash Center this weekend to battle for the Summers Cup in the College Squash Association (CSA) National Collegiate Men's Team Championships. The Mammoths will begin their tournament run on Friday (Feb. 18) at 5 p.m. with a quarterfinal matchup against Dickinson College, the same opponent they faced in the season opener on Nov. 20.

The Mammoths enter the tournament ranked 20th in the nation in the CSA rankings, earning them the third seed in the Summers Cup, the C Division tournament for teams ranked 17th through 24th in the nation (19th-ranked Bowdoin is not participating in this year's tournament, moving 25th-ranked Middlebury into the Summers Cup bracket). The Mammoths enter nationals with a 10-8 record after finishing fifth in the NESCAC Tournament and will face a 6-12 Red Devils squad. Amherst is seeking its second Summers Cup after winning the tournament in 2000. The Mammoths finished seventh in the draw last season. Reigning champion Williams is in the B Division this year and St. Lawrence is the top seed in the Summers Cup bracket.

The quarterfinal matchup with Dickinson, the 23rd-ranked team in the nation and sixth seed in the draw, is a rematch of Amherst's season opener, a 5-4 Mammoths win that came down to the #6 match where senior captain Charles Sutherby pulled out a four-game win. Friday's meeting is expected to feature two rematches in the ladder from that November meeting with Amherst sophomore Kedar Nagaraj facing Dickinson sophomore Kobe Fleming in the #4 match and Amherst junior Nate Mossé facing Dickinson junior Sam Knipp at the #8 position. Both of those matches were won by the Mammoths in three games in November.

The Amherst lineup also includes senior Robinson Armour, an All-NESCAC selection in 2020, at the top of the ladder. Junior Adam Lichtmacher brings a record of 11-3 this season to the #2 spot, where he has won his last four matches. Sophomore Neal Malani has also won four straight matches at the #3 position. First-year Abhi Gupta has won six of his last eight matches and will be at the #5 slot. Sophomore Yeshwin Sankuratri carries a record of 9-7 to the #7 position and senior captain Andrew Leung fills out the #9 spot with a 7-7 record that includes a win in the season opener against Dickinson.

After Friday's quarterfinal match, the Mammoths will face either second-seeded Brown or seventh-seeded Navy on Saturday (Feb. 19) at 6:30 p.m., with the winners meeting in the semifinals and the losers meeting in a consolation match. Sunday's championship match is at 2:30 p.m. with consolation matches earlier in the day as all teams will play on all three days this weekend. Live video and live results will be available from Philadelphia.