Down two games in a nationals match last season, Sofia Arseniev was hit in the face with a racket. When Arseniev came out to recover, Fordham men’s squash coach Sahel Anwar thought she would end up defaulting the match. Instead, Arseniev took a beat to ice her face. She got back on the court and ended up winning the match, 2 – 3.
“It was crazy. She was like, ‘no, I’m going to go back and play.’ And I’m like, ‘okay, yeah, it’s okay. You don’t need to go!’ And she’s like, ‘no, I want to go. I want to play, I want to play.’ And she iced herself for a little bit and she went back on court, and then, yeah, she won the third game, fourth game and ended up winning the fifth game,” Anwar said.
Arseniev, Fordham College at Lincoln Center ’25, joined the squash program her first year, becoming the first female squash athlete to play on the Division I men’s team ladder. Four years later, Arseniev closed out her Fordham squash career by playing her last match this March and becoming the first female squash player to have a career win in the program’s history.
“It was kind of a no brainer. I should play for the men’s team.” Sofia Arseniev, Fordham College at Lincoln Center ’25
Throughout her career, coach Anwar has seen Arseniev develop into both a technically and mentally strong squash athlete. The strength of this mentality was on full display during her comeback in last year’s nationals match against Vassar.
“I think it’s the self-confidence in her now, when she’s out there nothing fears her, and, you know, I’m sure it’s probably happening outside of the squash court as well too,” Anwar said.
Arseniev’s squash career started long before she became a Ram. Born into a squash-playing family, Arseniev picked up her first racket at age nine. Growing up in Russia, Arseniev’s family saw squash as a stepping stone to an acceptance to an American university.
“I got into it because my aunt played squash and she had okay grades in high school, but she got into UPenn because she got recruited for squash,” Arseniev said. “At the time I was living in Moscow, Russia when I was nine — my father’s Russian. My parents kind of thought, ‘oh this could be a ticket to university from Russia,’ like an out of Russia kind of thing, and so I started playing.”
For many people, squash is a sport they have never been acquainted with. Squash is often inadequately compared to tennis or pickleball, but they share few similarities in reality. Squash is played in a glass court where the two players hit a small rubber ball against a wall. The truly niche nature of squash is what draws Arseniev to the sport.
“I think squash is a very unique sport. You have to be very athletic for it. It’s a lot of endurance,” Arseniev said. “The ball does not bounce at all. A tennis ball is very bouncy, but the whole point about squash is you have to hit the ball hard enough that it gets warm and it gets bouncier.”
Arseniev finally moved to the United States to live in Washington D.C. with her grandparents, before high school. The move from Russia to the U.S. was in hopes of having a better opportunity to be recruited by American universities.
In the U.S., Arseniev played on the squash team at her all girls high school, National Cathedral School. She found a lot of success on the court while in D.C., she was a two time MVP and in 2019 she was a U.S. Junior Squash All-American.
“I think squash is a very unique sport. You have to be very athletic for it. It’s a lot of endurance.” Sofia Arseniev, FCLC ’25
With her success in high school and Junior Squash, Arseniev started the college recruitment process in the hopes of continuing her squash career. Then the unexpected hit — in 2020, Arseniev found herself at home like most of the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While stuck at home, Arseniev decided to put down her racket and quit the recruitment process. So ultimately her decision to apply to Fordham had nothing to do with potential squash prospects.
“I kind of had a little bit of a rebellious streak and I quit and so I stopped. I was in the process of getting recruited but I just didn’t reply to any of the emails and just applied normally and got into Fordham,” Arseniev said.
Even though squash was not the reason Arseniev joined the Ramily, it was not long before she picked her racket back up. Fordham has a Division I men’s squash team, along with a women’s club squash team. During Arseniev’s first year, her mother encouraged her to return to the sport and try out for the women’s club team.
As a student at Fordham Lincoln Center (FLC), Arseniev had to take the inter-campus transportation, the Ram Van, to club practices. The drive between the Lincoln Center and the Bronx campus would soon become a staple of Arseniev’s Fordham career.
After a couple of practices with the club team, Arseniev decided to reach out to coach Anwar. Anwar invited Arseniev to play at the squash court in the Lombardi Fieldhouse at the Rose Hill campus.
“To be honest, she was basically a walk on,” Anwar said.
From the moment that Arseniev played on the Lombardi Squash Courts, Anwar moved to put her on the program’s roster.
“Once I played with the guys and they saw that I was good as well, it was kind of a no brainer. I should play for the men’s team,” Arseniev said.
Despite being a “no brainer” for Arseniev to be a member of the Division I squash roster, the transition onto the team was anything but smooth. For one, Arseniev had never played on an all-men’s team before. Initially Arseniev was confronted with the shock of a new playing environment but once she found her footing she felt incredibly welcomed by the Fordham Squash team.
“I was 18, fresh out of high school, and I also went to an all-girls high school. So that was such a shock to be, like, at an all-girls high school and then an all-men squash team, but the guys were nice to me,” Arseniev said. “It was definitely kind of hard because I was like, oh, do I have to be kind of a cool girl? Should I be more quiet? Should I be more talkative and I guess be more myself, but the three seniors, my three captains freshman year, were so nice. They immediately treated me really as part of the team.”
It is extremely rare that varsity athletes at Fordham are students seeking their degrees at FLC instead of the Rose Hill campus. Despite not being advised by the athletics department, as a neuroscience major, Arseniev decided to not move up to the Bronx.
“Fordham was not happy with me when I didn’t transfer to Rose Hill after starting the season,” Arseniev said.
The drive between the Lincoln Center and the Bronx campus would soon become a staple of Arseniev’s Fordham career.
Staying at FLC, Arseniev has had to be highly conscious of her schedule. Over her four years at Fordham, Arseniev had to balance her academic classes, 8 a.m. practices and travel between The Bronx to Manhattan. From when the team begins practices in October to when the squash season ends in March, Arseniev has had to be both an athlete at Rose Hill and a student at Lincoln Center.
“She made it work. It was all her, it had nothing to do with me, to be honest. It was all her effort being able to get up and come in the morning and classes and whatnot and her schedules,” Anwar said.
The first two years on the team were an adjustment period for Arseniev as squash player, according to coach Anwar. Arseniev’s first year was the first time she had played competitively against male athletes.
“When you put her in a situation where now she’s competing with the men as well too, it is very difficult. I think in the beginning we kind of went through that where she had to learn to overcome that. And then the last two years, honestly, it’s just been great, the way she’s been able to compete. It’s been a good ride with her on the team,” Anwar said.
“I think it’s the self-confidence in her now, when she’s out there nothing fears her, and, you know, I’m sure it’s probably happening outside of the squash court as well too.” Sahel Anwar, Fordham men’s squash coach
Over her four years at Fordham, Arseniev has seen growth both in her play on the court and in her ability to articulate her needs as an athlete. Being the only female athlete on an all-male roster has been challenging, but Arseniev felt the most important thing for her was to be able to take space from the team when needed.
“There were definitely some times where I really was like, ‘this is really annoying me when you’re on the Ram Van for seven hours with all guys and they’re being very crude,’” Arseniev said. “I’m like, ‘what am I doing right now?’ But I think it was just key for me to articulate that with my coach because it got to a point where I realized that no, I can’t be like one of the guys, so I just have to take my time when I need it and when I feel like it,” Arseniev said.
From walking on to the team her first year to graduating as a Division I squash athlete, Fordham Squash has shaped Arseniev’s Fordham career and her future.
“I’m definitely very glad that I played, and I will definitely be in contact with some of the guys — probably for the rest of my life,” Arseniev said.
As her career as a Fordham athlete has come to an end, Arseniev hopes that the opportunity she has had to be a female squash athlete at Fordham does not end with her. She said that there are so many talented female squash athletes who are waiting for the opportunity to get on the court at the collegiate level.
“Women’s squash has a huge potential, and I mean, I honestly enjoy watching women play squash more than men playing squash because it’s also a lot more tactful,” Arseniev said. “There’s a bunch of girls who are very good but don’t get recruited because there’s just not enough teams, and I think Fordham would have a great women’s squad.”
