Wellesley, MA — After the success of the U25 Doubles Championships at the Field Club of Greenwich last April, the Elmaleh Project decided to put together an U25 Doubles “Summer Roadtrip,” with stops in Southampton, NY, and Boston, MA. The Elmaleh Project, headed up by former world number one doubles player Gary Waite, is trying to grow the game of doubles squash by introducing it to a younger group of players.
At the event in April, the team of Graham Bassett and Greg McArthur claimed the men’s title, and the team of Suzie Pierrepont and Trevor McGuinness claimed the mixed title. Bassett was a four-year player at the University of Pennsylvania where McGuinness currently plays. Both teams were looking to maintain dominance during the Summer Roadtrip. A number of college players who participated in the U25 Doubles Championships, including students from Bowdoin, Cornell, Penn, Princeton, Wellesley, and Yale, also competed in the summer event.
The first stop on the Summer Roadtrip was Squash in the Hamptons in Southampton, NY. The team of McArthur and Bassett ended up the men’s finals, as expected, but they faced a new team: McGuinness and his new partner, Todd Ruth (Yale). McGuinness and Ruth proved to be unstoppable, defeating McArthur and Bassett in both Southampton and at the second stop, The University Club of Boston.
The mixed events in both Southampton and Boston featured many players who were new to the doubles game, including Maggie O’Toole (Princeton) and Pete Hansen, Jimmy Cook, Katie Hendricks, Lori Stump, and Maddie Brooks, all of Hobart and William Smith. In Southampton, McGuinness and Pierrepont maintained their title, but they did not compete in Boston. That event was won by the University Club’s Dan Roberts and another doubles newcomer, Elizabeth Brown (Dartmouth). Roberts and Brown defeated me and Peter Cipriano (Bowdoin), and the team of Brooks and Dylan Aldrich (Cornell) on the way to the title.
It is clear that doubles is growing amongst the college crowd, as the most common phrase heard off the court during the Summer Roadtrip was, “Wow, this is so much more fun than singles!!” Waite is hoping to organize two more tournaments before next April’s U25 Doubles Championships.
