Hanover, NH — The quarters and semis were played today, setting the stage for the men’s and women’s finals at the 2011 Individual Championships.
In men’s Pool Trophy (A Division) play, two sets of Trinity teammates faced off in the quarterfinals. Chris Binnie, who clinched the Bantams’ thirteenth consecutive national title last weekend, played Vikram Malhotra, who has played number 1 for Trinity this season. Malhotra won in four games.
Two other Trinity players, Andres Vargas and Randy Lim, met in one of the other quarters. Both Vargas and Lim tend to play long, punishing matches with endless rallies, and today’s match was no exception. Vargas won in five.
The other two quarterfinal matches were more lopsided. Todd Harrity of Princeton continued his season-long dominance with a 3-0 win over Rochester number 1 Beni Fischer. Harrity is undefeated this season and last dropped a game in November.
The player he lost that game to, Nick Sachvie of Cornell, emerged victorious over Yale’s Kenneth Chan in the fourth quarterfinal. It looked like Chan was going to steal the third game and force a fourth, but Sachvie came back to win the third in extra points.
The first semifinal was between Harrity and Malhotra, and Harrity delivered another strong performance. Though it looked like Malhotra had a fleeting chance for a comeback in the third game, Harrity pulled through with another three-game win.
Sachvie and Vargas met in the second semifinal. Though Sachvie won in three close games, Vargas made him work for the win, grinding out rally after rally.
Harrity and Sachvie will compete for the Pool Trophy tomorrow at 1:30 pm. Harrity made it to the Pool Trophy finals last year, where he lost to Colin West.
In the Pool Trophy consolation bracket, Antonio Diaz (Trinity), Hameed Ahmed (Rochester), Gui de Melo (F&M), and Chris Hanson (Dartmouth) made it to the semifinals. Ahmed and Hanson will play in the finals. Andres Duany (Rochester), Gary Power (Harvard), Parth Sharma (Trinity), and Kelly Shannon (Princeton) advanced to the second consolation semifinals.
One of the most exciting matches of the day came in the women’s Ramsay Cup quarterfinals. Yale’s Logan Greer, the 2011 Richey Award winner, led Harvard’s Nirasha Gurgue 2-0. Gurgue stormed back with composed, commanding play to win the next three games and advance into the semifinals.
The quarterfinal match between Julie Cerullo of Princeton and Rachael Goh of Penn opened with a marathon first game. Cerullo and Goh traded points back and forth until Cerullo finally pulled away to win 20-18. The Princeton sophomore won the next two games decisively, 11-4, 11-7.
Two first-year players, Trinity’s Catalina Pelaez and Yale’s Millie Tomlinson, met in one of the other quarterfinals. Pelaez was seeded second coming into the tournament and Tomlinson was seeded seventh. The opening game was close, with Tomlinson coming out on top 11-9. Then Tomlinson pulled away, winning the next two games 11-3, 11-6.
The fourth quarterfinal was between Harvard’s Laura Gemmell, the defending Ramsay Cup champion, and Stanford’s top player, Pamela Chua. When the two played earlier in the year, Gemmell won in three, with two 11-9 games. Today’s match was less close; Gemmell won 11-8, 11-2, 11-5.
The semifinal match-ups were Gemmell-Cerullo and Gurgue-Tomlinson. Gemmell and Cerullo both play number 1 for their teams, and when they last met in February, Gemmell won in four, with Cerullo taking the second game 11-9. This time around, Cerullo evened the score several times but was not able to close out a win. Gemmell won in three: 11-7, 11-7, 11-8.
Gurgue and Tomlinson had also played in the regular season and in the women’s finals at Howe Cup, as both play number 2 for their respective teams. Each time, Tomlinson had won in three close games, and tonight she won again in three.
Gemmell and Tomlinson will play for the Ramsay Cup tomorrow at 12:30 pm. Tomlinson dropped the first match of her collegiate career and has been undefeated since; Gemmell has yet to lose a match in intercollegiate play. Since Gemmell played number 1 for Harvard and Tomlinson primarily played number 2 for Yale, they have not yet played each other this season. They have two opponents in common. Gemmell defeated Jaime Laird of Cornell 11-9, 6-11, 11-6, 11-7 yesterday, and Tomlinson defeated Laird 11-3, 11-7, 11-8 in January. Gemmell defeated Pelaez 11-9, 11-8, 8-11, 11-7 at Howe Cup and won 9-11, 11-5, 7-11, 11-9, 11-6 earlier in February. (As mentioned above, Tomlinson defeated Pelaez 11-9, 11-3, 11-6 earlier today.)
In the Ramsay Cup consolation draw, Cheri-Ann Parris of Bates, Natasha Kingshott of Harvard, Cecelia Cortes of Harvard, and Pia Trikha of Penn all advanced to the semifinals. Kingshott defeated Parris to advance to the finals, where she will face Cortes. Nabilla Ariffin of Penn and Pamela Hathway of Trinity met in one second consolation semifinal, and Valeria Wiens of Dartmouth and Jackie Moss of Princeton met in the other.
Given the larger draws in the men’s and women’s B Divisions, the semifinals and finals will both be held on Sunday. The round of 16 and the quarterfinals were held today.
In the Holleran Cup (women’s B Division), Kyla Sherwood (Stanford), Casey Cortes (Princeton), Alexandra Sawin (Princeton), Emery Holton (Trinity), Katie Giovinazzo (Princeton), Gwen Tilghman (Yale), Nikki Sequeira (Princeton), and Samantha Buechner (Stanford) all advanced to the quarterfinals. The semifinal match-ups will be Sherwood-Sawin and Giovinazzo-Buechner.
Carolyn Tilney of Brown and Kathryn Bostwick of Middlebury will play in the Holleran Cup consolation final. Both Tilney and Bostwick advanced with wins over Mount Holyoke players: Tilney defeated Tempest Bowden, and Bostwick defeated Shaheen Madraswala.
Caroline Feeley (Princeton) and Courtney Bogle (Williams) will play in one second consolation semifinal, and Robyn Williams (Trinity) and Alexandra Glassman (Cornell) will compete in the other.
In the third round consolation, Jackie Shea (George Washington) will play Vidushi Gurunada (Mount Holyoke), and Courtney Jones (Penn) will play Robyn Hodgson (Trinity).
In the Molloy Cup (men’s B Division), Joe Chapman (Rochester), J.P. Gaviria (Rochester), Adrian Leanza (Brown), Matt Domenick (Rochester), Zeke Scherl (Harvard), Nigel Koh (Harvard), Robbie Berner (Yale), and Omar Sobhy (George Washington) advanced to the quarterfinals. Koh and Sobhy will compete in one of the semifinals, and Gaviria will play the winner of the Leanza-Domenick match.
Trevor McGuinness (Penn) and Peter Nolan (Kenyon) met in one of the consolation semifinals, and Vir Seth (St. Lawrence) and Allan Lutz (Navy) met in the other.
Alexander Ma (Harvard) and Rishi Jalan (Cornell) will play in one of the second consolation semifinals on Sunday morning, and Clay Blackiston (Princeton) and Graham Miao (Columbia) will play in the other.
For complete results, see the live brackets.
