WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- No. 5 seed Amherst College knocked off No. 4 Bates Saturday in the quarterfinal round of the 2023 NESCAC Men's Squash Championships as the Mammoths advance with an 8-1 defeat of the Bobcats.

Amherst now has the pleasure of facing top-seed Trinity College in Sunday's semifinals (10:30 a.m.), which defeated No. 8 Hamilton, 8-0. Tournament host and No. 2 seed, Williams College, takes on No. 3 Tufts in the morning's other semifinal match.

Alec Spiro (Portland, Ore.) secured Bates' lone win on the day as the star sophomore put away Amherst's Kedar Nagaraj with a 3-1 victory of 11-5, 11-7, 9-11, 11-4. The triumph mark's Spiro second-consecutive defeat of Nagaraj, blanking the Mammoths' top player, 3-0 (11-9, 11-5, 11-4), when the two squads faced off back on Jan. 22 at Amherst.

The Mammoths recorded a clean sweep through the rest of Bates' lineup, positions No. 2 through No. 9.

Ashton Monteiro (Fy.-Greenwich, Conn.) and  Labeeb Ali (Plano, Texas) experienced agonizing five-game losses for the garnet and white as each enjoyed 2-0 advantages before dropping the next three to their respective foes, Abhimanyu Gupta (13-11, 11-9, 9-11, 8-11, 9-11) and Matthew Granovsky (11-9, 12-10, 5-11, 6-11, 4-11).

Bates, at 10-6 on the year, now looks ahead to the College Squash Association (CSA) Team Championships, Feb. 24-26, in Hartford and Middletown, Conn.

No. 5 Amherst 8, No. 4 Bates College 1
Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023 at Williamstown, Mass. (Williams College
NESCAC Championship quarterfinals

1. Alec Spiro (Bates) def. Kedar Nagaraj (Amherst) 11-5, 11-7, 9-11, 11-4
2. Robinson Armour (Amherst) def. Jonathan Walker (Bates) 11-7, 11-8, 11-7
3. Neal Malani (Amherst) def. Harris Ramlee (Bates) 11-8, 11-6, 11-7
4. Abhimanyu Gupta (Amherst) def. Ashton Monteiro (Bates) 11-13, 9-11,11-9, 11-8, 11-9
5. Grady Herbert (Amherst) def. Chris Kenny (Bates) 11-3, 11-6, 11-6
6. Matthew Granovsky (Amherst) def. Labeeb Ali (Bates) 9-11, 10-12,11-5, 11-6, 11-4
7. Yeshwin Sankuratri (Amherst) def. Sultan Hashmi (Bates) 7-11,11-8, 11-7, 11-4
8. William Okurowski (Amherst) def. Garrett Wenberg (Bates) 11-8, 12-10, 12-10
9. Nathaniel Mosse (Amherst) def. Max Good (Bates) 11-4, 12-10,11-3

Amherst (12-5), Bates (10-6)